RED SOX: Chris Sale in good shape

Sox starter reports no setbacks from his abbreviated start Tuesday night against Toronto.

BOSTON -- Exhale as one, Red Sox Nation.

Chris Sale reported no setbacks from his Tuesday night start against the Blue Jays and is on track to take the ball again on Sunday against the Mets.

The left-hander threw the first inning of the 7-2 victory over Toronto and retreated to the home bullpen at Fenway Park to continue his work. Sale threw 40 pitches in all, including 26 during just his second game action since July 27.

“A little erratic, obviously,” Sale said Tuesday. “Drove my pitch count up a little bit, which is why I didn’t get to go out for my second and third innings. Got some good work in and we’ll move on from there.”

This is the luxury of clinching at least an American League wild-card berth with 17 games to play. Boston can afford to ease Sale back into the rotation during game situations and take a certain amount of risk with the outcome. But not sending Sale out for a second inning – and avoiding a situation where he could have left a reliever like Brandon Workman in a jam – spoke to the fact that the Red Sox still maintain a larger goal of clinching a third straight American League East title.

“Hopefully we can keep playing well and keep winning ballgames,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Hopefully, when we accomplish our next goal, we can celebrate a little bit harder.”

Sale was under immediate pressure after allowing a leadoff double to right field to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. He struck out the next two batters, hit Kendrys Morales on the right foot with a slider and induced a popup to end the inning. Sale threw 14 strikes and induced six swings-and-misses, topping out at 97 mph with his fastball.

“It sped up a little bit on me,” Sale said. “I felt like I was rushing a little bit. I kind of got out of some of the things I need to do to stay on top of things.”

Sale jogged across right field while Workman took over for a scoreless frame, the first of seven Boston relievers to work in the game. Nathan Eovaldi logged the longest stint out of the bullpen at 3-1/3 innings and Ryan Brasier followed with 1-1/3 innings to pick up the victory. Sale reached his pitch count while Workman was on the mound in the second.

“Probably haven’t seen that too many times before, especially this time of year,” Sale said. “At the end of the day you’ve got to kind of swallow your pride and get your work in. I obviously wanted to get up and down, and we did that.”

Sale will build up to six or seven innings by his final start of the regular season, expecting to approach the 100-pitch mark. He’s already been tabbed by Cora to pitch the postseason opener, be it a wild-card game or the first of five in the AL Division Series.

“Yesterday was like his first big league outing,” Cora said. “He was all over the place and he admitted right away the game sped up on him. (Gurriel doubles) and it’s like, ‘I’ve got to compete.’

“He’ll be fine. At the end he struck out two and induced somebody to pop up. I know Sunday will be better.”