Jays’ Borucki pumped to pitch against Sale
Rookie left-hander picked up pro tips from Boston star
TORONTO — After Mark Buehrle, there was Chris Sale on Ryan Borucki’s list of boyhood idols.
Borucki, a left-handed native of Mundelein, Ill., which sits about 80 kilometres north of Chicago, grew up idolizing the southpaws he watched with regularity in the Chicago White Sox organization, his favourite team.
From the time he was six years old to the age of 17, Borucki was enamoured with the one-time Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Buehrle. But, as Buehrle’s time with the White Sox wound down, a 16-year-old Borucki started following another lefty, Sale, who overlapped with the veteran by a season and a bit starting in 2010.
“I grew up watching (Sale) with the White Sox and, for me, I was the same kind of pitcher, I was really tall and skinny like how he was when he came up with the White Sox and just kind of slung it, didn’t really have much mechanical work going,”
Borucki said last weekend. “Really just trying to go out there and throw, and that’s what I did.”
Sale was a reliever when both he and Buehrle donned Chicago’s uniform, “throwing like 100 (miles per hour),” Borucki remembered. By 2012, Buehrle was a member of the Miami Marlins and Sale had been turned into a starter. Starting is what Sale did Tuesday night for the Boston Red Sox against none other than his longtime fan Borucki.
In general, Borucki doesn’t pay much attention to the other guy on the mound, although it is cool to go against guys he has watched dominate for the past couple of years.
Sale, who was traded to Boston in December 2016, certainly falls into that category. He has been an all-star in each of the past seven seasons, a Cy Young vote recipient every year since 2012 and an MVP vote recipient ever year since ’15. Prior to Tuesday, over 23 starts totalling 146 innings, he had a 1.97 ERA and led baseball in numerous categories, including a 1.95 FIP, an 0.849 WHIP and 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings. But it is Borucki’s childhood admiration that puts Sale at the top of the list of active pitchers he would like to go head-to-head with.
“He’d probably be one or two,” Borucki said.
The 24-year-old wasn’t expected to face Sale for long.
The 29-year-old came off the disabled list Tuesday ahead of the opener of the three-game series between the Blue Jays and Red Sox at Fenway Park. Heading into play, Sale had pitched just five innings since July 27 as he struggled with mild inflammation in his left shoulder, the diagnosis leading to two stints on the disabled list spanning the bulk of the past six weeks.
Boston manager Alex Cora planned to ease him back into the game by using him as an opener against Toronto, throwing about two innings or a maximum of 40 pitches, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com. It’s a role Sale is likely to fill for multiple outings as the regular season winds down.
“Two the first time, hopefully three the second time, then keep going,” Cora reportedly told reporters in Boston over weekend.
“And then the last one, whenever it is, like a full go, six or seven innings and 100 pitches.”
It’s “the luck of the draw,” manager John Gibbons joked about the rookie facing the veteran. The skip doesn’t see many similarities between the two on the mound. He’s more Buehrle-esque than similar to Sale, but, “either way you can’t got wrong,” Gibbons said.
“They’re two totally different type pitchers,” he said. “Sale’s a power pitcher, he’s got the great arm, different release point type thing. He’s a strikeout guy. Ryan can get some strikeouts but that’s not what he’s known as, he’s got to be a contact guy, gets a lot of ground balls, he’s got to win that way. He’s proved to us he can do that.”
While Borucki, who made his big-league debut in late June, will be the rookie against his onetime idol Sale, who is in his ninth big-league season, he is starting to seem like an old hand in a Jays clubhouse full of September call-ups.
Being in the majors has almost become normal for Borucki over the past few months; as surreal as that is to say aloud for him, he is getting more and more comfortable with the thought. But it is still weird to be the guy welcoming his former Buffalo Bisons teammates to the clubhouse — helping them identify little differences between the major and minor leagues, such as what clothes to wear to the ballpark and where to sit on the team plane — like fellow starter Sam Gaviglio did for him when he made the jump in June.
“Here is just a little bit different, you just need to kind of tighten stuff up when you’re here,” Borucki said.
Tightening things up is exactly what Borucki was looking to do in his second start at Fenway Park. He lasted just three innings in the famed ballpark in his debut there, giving up seven runs, four earned, on eight hits, while walking four and striking out five. It was his fourth outing for the Jays and the first time he wasn’t credited with a quality start.
Borucki recalled that game in July as a “crazy” experience. He has faced the American League leaders at the Rogers Centre once since then and believes he has a better idea of what to expect against the highest-scoring team in the AL, which he hopes will help him shake off any nerves.
“I think I’ll be a little more relaxed.”