Red Sox ace Chris Sale struggled his first start of 2023
Sale struggled against the Orioles
BOSTON-The Boston Red Sox have waited since last July for Chris Sale to return back to game action. It was Boston’s second game of the 2023 season and Sale was set to pitch. A lot of optimism headed into spring training earlier this year seeing if he was going to be healthy enough to start the season. On Saturday he ended up starting for the Sox’s but didn’t last long at all. Sale stat line went as followed: 3 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 3 HR, 2 BB and 6 K’s. Very tough outing against Baltimore and he will look to bounce back in his next start against the Tigers in Detroit next week. I understand that it was his first start in a regular season game in nine months and he had to get the rust out, but Boston was looking for him to pitch at least six innings to save the bullpen, but that did not happen.
Sale strikeouts six in his first start
https://www.mlb.com/redsox/video/chris-sale-fans-six-vs-orioles
Sale on his performance
“Sometimes you just suck,” Sale said postgame according to the Boston’s globe Alex Speier. He went onto say this about his out as well:
“I left them completely out to dry tonight,” Sale said. “About as embarrassed as I’ve ever been. … I was out there throwing batting practice.”
“Fortunately and unfortunately, the story isn’t about me today,” Sale said, according to The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey.
As you can see, Sale is very unhappy with his performance today and will look to work and build on his confidence for his next outing which he should be much sharper in.
Boston needs a healthy Sale for 2023
If there is one thing that the Red Sox need this season is Sale to produce 30-35 starts. The starting rotation has a lot of unknowns with some familiar faces and some new. If Sale is not healthy that will be a huge loss for the rotation because the team relies heavily on him being the ace and the other guys learning from what he does. Nick Pivetta, Corey Kluber, Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock just naming some guys that will be pitching in this rotation. The Red Sox are just hoping that Sale can return to his form and his success that he had early on with the team and even getting around 15 wins would be great.