BOSTON -- The sort of at-bat that has dogged Chris Sale this season came in the top of third inning Saturday night.
Chris Taylor led off for the Dodgers against the Red Sox left-hander. Sale jumped ahead in the count 1-and-2 and required six more pitches to retire Taylor, as he eventually lined to first base. Justin Turner cracked the next pitch from Sale, a fastball out over the plate, into the Monster Seats at Fenway Park.
Did the strain of one grinding at-bat soften up Sale? The case could certainly be made Los Angeles was gaining momentum by that point, knowing Sale’s night would likely be a short one. He lasted just 4 2/3 innings in an 11-2 loss.
“That’s something we haven’t done this season – put guys away,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Three pitches and boom – move on to the next one. That’s been going on the whole season.”
Sale suffered through two similar encounters in the top of the fifth, which turned out to be his final inning. Turner fell behind 1-and-2 before lashing the fifth pitch to the corner in left for an RBI double. David Freese fouled off a 2-and-2 pitch before lining a two-run double of his own to left, making it a 5-1 game.
“Just the same old stuff,” Sale said. “Not getting it done. Making bad pitches, not keeping the ball in the yard, no shutdown innings when I need to – just the same stuff as before.”
Sale faced 22 batters on Saturday and required at least five pitches to 12 of them. He threw 92 pitches in all while surrendering seven hits and being tagged for five earned runs. It was his third consecutive outing allowing at least that many runs, and his ERA over his last four starts swelled to 7.59.
“I’m not getting it done,” Sale said. “There’s no other way to paint it. No other way to put it. Nobody else to blame. In a way I guess that’s a good thing – it’s all on me.”
Sale’s record on the season fell to 3-9, but he certainly deserved better during one particular stretch beginning on April 23. Sale’s next 11 starts including that game against Detroit and ending with a June 15 outing at Baltimore saw him post a fine 2.24 ERA. Sale compiled just a 3-3 record, and one of those victories was a three-hit shutout in an 8-0 win at Kansas City on June 5.
“You try to put everything in perspective and keep the emotions out of the whole equation,” Cora said. “You’re like, ‘Are we that far off?’ It’s one pitch here and one pitch there for him to go six innings with one run. That’s the goal for us – to find it and find that pitch and put people away.”
Being accountable and accepting blame for his struggles is the norm for Sale – he’s been a model professional win or lose since his December 2016 trade from the White Sox to the Red Sox. But this Boston team is just 6-13 when he starts in 2019, and a reverse of that mark would find the club comfortably in control of an American League wild card spot. Instead, the Red Sox trailed Tampa Bay by 3 games and Oakland by 1½ games entering Sunday’s series finale with the Dodgers.
“Some guys are feeling good about themselves,” Cora said. “Others, you’ve got to help them out to let them know how good they are. He’s fine now. I knew what he was going to say. He’s fine and we’re working on it for the next one.”