Sale up to speed, Sox win 7th straight
Red Sox 5 Phillies 3
PHILADELPHIA — The biggest adjustment Chris Sale made against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night had nothing to do with how he threw any of his pitches.
The Red Sox lefthander had a three-run lead in the fourth inning and was working on a shutout when he misplayed a tapper to the right side of the mound off the bat of Bryce Harper.
Three more hits followed and Sale became more and more agitated as the Phillies tied the game. His famed temper was reaching its boiling point.
“The train was starting to get off the tracks a little bit. Emotions got high,” Sale said.
The infielders came to the mound to give Sale a chance to regain his composure. Three quick outs followed and the Red Sox went on to a 5-3 victory, their seventh in a row.
Sale (3-2) pitched six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits with 10 strikeouts.
The Phillies didn’ t come close to scoring against Sale after that surge in the fourth. He has allowed four earned runs on 10 hits over 12‚ innings with one walk and 15 strikeouts in his last two starts.
After the game, Sale thanked catcher Connor Wong and the infielders for helping him pull it back together.
“Without them, I don’ t know what that would have looked like,” Sale said. “I like to compete. I love it. It’s what I really am passionate about. It’s hard sometimes with everything that’s gone on, sometimes I have a tough time unhitching the trailer with some of these emotions.”
After Sale threw 98 pitches, Richard Bleier, Chris Martin, and Kenley Jansen finished off the game. It was the seventh save of the season for Jansen and the 398th of his career.
With two runners on and Harper on deck, Trea Turner struck out to end it as the
crowd of 43,332 groaned.
They should be used to it. The Sox have won eight of their last 12 games at Citizens Bank Park. The defending National League champion Phillies have lost five straight to fall to 15-18.
The Sox came out swinging against Philadelphia starter Zack Wheeler.
Rafael Devers had a two-out RBI single in the first inning. Two more runs scored in the third, the first when Justin Turner grounded out with a runner on third and the second when Kiké Hernández singled with two outs.
Masataka Yoshida scored one of the runs after extending his hit streak to 15 games with a single.
Jarren Duran, who has a 1.116 OPS over 18 games, doubled and came around on a single by Hernández and a 401foot sacrifice fly by Triston Casas. Rookie Enmanuel Valdez drove in Hernández with a single to right field.
Wheeler (3-2) allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits.
“We put pressure on him,” Sox manager Alex Cora said.
In his first appearance against the Phillies since 2017, Sale initially looked a lot like the pitcher he was that first season with the Sox.
He came out with high-end velocity in the first inning, hitting 98.6 miles per hour facing Harper, then striking him out swinging with a 97.5 mph pitch.
Sale had not reached 98.6 since Aug. 12, 2018. He reached 99 later in the game.
“The fast ball is playing. Good sliders,” Cora said. “Overall, what we expected and he’s trending in the right direction.”
Cora thought Sale would get his velocity close to triple digits overtime as he built arm strength, but not this quickly.
“My expectations are pretty high,” Sale said. “I’ve been kind of waiting for it, honestly. These are things I want to continue to do and continue to build and get deeper into games.”
Beyond the statistics, Sale’s improved command and velocity are a base to build on moving forward.
“He’s feeling good,” Cora said. “He wants to compete; he wants to dominate. Today was a great day for him.”
The 20-14 Sox have scored 52 runs on 91 hits in their win streak. They have not won eight in a row since June 25-July 2, 2021.
“I like what I see,” Jansen said.
“A lot of good things are happening with this team.”