Proving ground for Sale
Final regular-season start tonight
It’s rare that Chris Sale actually has something to prove, but that should be the case tonight when he takes the ball for the final time in the regular season.
This doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to look clean.
Another 73-pitch outing in which he only records 10 outs and averages less than 94 mph on the fastball — like he did last weekend in Cleveland — will be an ominous sign for a franchise that’s fallen behind in the Division Series two straight years and is just 1-6 in the playoffs since 2013.
Pitching in the nightcap of a doubleheader (David Price will start Game 1 in the afternoon) against the Orioles, who already have clinched the worst record in the majors, Sale could do his team and fanbase a lot of good with a sharp outing.
The next time Fenway sees him, it’ll be for Game 1 of the ALDS on Friday, Oct. 5.
It was long assumed Sale would start Game 1, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski confirmed as much during an appearance on MLB Network Radio yesterday.
“He’s going to pitch (tonight) against the Orioles and that will be his last start of the season,” Dombrowski said. “He will pitch to 90-ish pitches and then be ready to go for 100 pitches for the postseason. He’ll be scheduled to start, I don’t think it will surprise anybody, the first day of the postseason on Friday. I don’t mean to usurp anyone’s announcement, but I think it’s been one of those, it’s been pretty clear.
“And then (manager) Alex (Cora) and pitching coach Dana LeVangie will talk to him between Wednesday and Friday about what he wants to do, when he wants to throw to get him precisely ready for that Friday.”
For as good as Sale has been since putting on the Red Sox uniform for the first time last year — his 2.52 ERA in that time ranks second only to Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw — he still has the ALDS disaster in Game 1 against the Astros last year to overcome.
Two of the first three batters hit home runs off Sale in that game. By the time the sixth inning was over, he had been charged with nine hits and seven earned runs.
A gutsy showing for 42⁄3 innings out of the bullpen in Game 4 put him on the path to redemption, but manager John Farrell questionably left him in the game to start the eighth against lefty-masher Alex Bregman (homer to left field) and that was the ballgame.
Everything from that outing last October has led to this point.
The Sox brass met with Sale before spring training to map out a plan and carefully monitored him each time he so much as lifted his shoulder.
He didn’t throw more than 93 pitches until his fifth start of the year. Through 10 starts, he had thrown 82 fewer pitches than he did at the same point last season.
Now the Red Sox have given him what is essentially a second chance at spring training during August and September.
“That’s exactly how it feels, and it’s kind of weird too at the same time,” Sale said after his last time out. “We’re in the middle of a stretch run . . . but it’s weird, I’m feeling this spring training vibe in the most important part of the season.”
The radar gun agreed, with his average fastball of 93.4 mph against Cleveland rating as his lowest since April 15, according to Brooks Baseball.
It might not mean much, given Sale manipulates his velocity based on what he’s seeing from the opposition, adding and subtracting anywhere from 5-10 mph on his fastball in the middle of the game.
Or maybe it does. Perhaps the shoulder inflammation that’s kept him to just 241⁄3 innings in the second half is limiting his ability and putting the Red Sox in a difficult position entering the postseason.
Time will tell. So will tonight’s outing.
Finally, Sale has something to prove.