Chris Sale has extra incentive in ALDS opener

BOSTON — Chris Sale tapped his left foot anxiously as he fielded questions from the assembled sports media Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox left-hander has waited a year to atone for his lone previous postseason start, a Game 1 disaster against the Astros in the American League Division Series. Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve launched back-to-back home runs in the first inning at Minute Maid Park to put Sale on the road to a surprising pounding, as [...]

BOSTON — Chris Sale tapped his left foot anxiously as he fielded questions from the assembled sports media Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox left-hander has waited a year to atone for his lone previous postseason start, a Game 1 disaster against the Astros in the American League Division Series. Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve launched back-to-back home runs in the first inning at Minute Maid Park to put Sale on the road to a surprising pounding, as Houston immediately wrestled away control of the series on the way to a World Series championship.

Sale took a second loss in relief in Game 4, but his and Boston’s collective fate had been sealed by that point. His regular-season dominance — a 300-strikeout campaign and a credible bid for the A.L. Cy Young Award — were reduced to footnote status by an ugly 8.38 earned-run average in two October appearances. It will be much the same story if Sale fails to perform Friday night against the Yankees, taking the ball once again as the Red Sox hope to excise some recent postseason demons.

“I’m not going to hide from it,” Sale said. “It is what it is. You can Google it now, tomorrow and 100 years from now and it’s going to be there. I own it. I accept it.

“And like I said, I’m going to be better. I going to do everything I can to be better. That’s all I can do.”

How much will Sale have to give against a New York lineup that set a Major League record for home runs in a season? Sale’s velocity was noticeably down in his final tuneup against the Orioles, a game in which he required 92 pitches to record just 14 outs. Sale struck out eight but found himself mired in a series of grinding Baltimore at-bats, unable to put hitters away quickly without his trademark heat and pinpoint command.

“As far as him competing and his slider and his changeup, they’re still good,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Wednesday. “It’s the separation obviously that makes hitters uncomfortable. But he’s going to compete, and we’re going to be fine with him.”

Sale and Cora have both pointed to some mechanical adjustments this week, as Sale threw a pair of bullpen sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. He studied video of his final start alongside Boston pitching coach Dana LeVangie and didn’t see the appropriate sync in his delivery between his upper body and his hips. Sale has spent the past few days attempting to iron out those flaws.

“I was able to get off the mound a couple of times and work on that,” Sale said. “Work on using my legs, driving a little bit more. Getting a little bit more rotational with my lower half and staying stronger with my top half.”

Sale insists his left shoulder is healthy and capable of handling a postseason workload, including pitching on short rest or in relief between starts. He hasn’t recorded an out in the sixth inning since July 27, dogged by inflammation for the better part of the last two months. Sale has consistently said he could have attempted to pitch through the pain, but the Red Sox holding a comfortable lead in the A.L. East factored into the club’s approach to be cautious with him.

“Obviously it’s something I didn’t like and that I didn’t want to go through,” Sale said. “But it’s life. It happens. Different things happen on a different day, and you have to handle it.”

Sale has been generally excellent in his career against the Yankees, posting a 1.61 ERA across 17 games and 100 2/3 innings. He’s allowed just 70 hits and struck out 130 in that span, which includes 14 starts. Sale has won just two of his seven starts against New York in two seasons with Boston, but his 38 hits allowed, 69 strikeouts and 2.11 ERA across 47 innings suggests he might have deserved a better fate at times.

“I mean, what else do you want?” Sale said. “You’ve got the Yankees and the Red Sox in the playoffs playing against each other. One of the biggest rivalries in sports — it’s what we signed up for.”