HOUSTON — Red Sox ace Chris Sale lasted just one inning in his Game 2 ALDS start vs. the Rays last Friday. He allowed a grand slam to Jordan Luplow and the Red Sox fell behind 5-2 in the first inning.
“You feel lesser than dirt — or I do, anyways — after that last start of mine in Tampa,” Sale said Thursday. “I put a lot of pressure on myself, and for my teammates to come and say, ‘Hey, man, you’re good. You’re the same guy. Keep grinding,’ that says a lot about who I have in my corner and the teammates I have. And I’m appreciative of that.”
Sale will start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series vs. the Astros on Friday. First pitch is at 8:07 p.m., eastern, here at Minute Maid Park.
Sale, who returned in August from Tommy John surgery rehab, lasted just 2 ⅓ innings in his final regular season start at Washington. He gave up two runs, four hits and three walks.
He allowed five runs on four hits, including Ludlow’s grand slam, in the one inning he pitched against the Rays in the ALDS.
“There’s no hiding from it, no secret,” Sale said. “I’ve been absolutely horrible. Probably my two worst starts of my career back-to-back leading up to this. I know what I had to do in between. I know I had a job to do. And I knew I had work to get in. Following my last start in Tampa, I got off the mound every single day because I knew I had to get something going if we were going to be successful. And I know that I’m going to be a part of that. Trying to iron out some kinks and get back in a good rhythm and find it and just ride it out as long as I can.”
“Changeup and just fastball command are the two things that I was really (working on),” Sale said. “My slider has been good enough, you know, I would say up to this point. The two things I really needed to focus on was fastball command and just, like I said last time, (more) consistency with my changeup. Throwing three out of 10 good (ones) is not cutting it here. And that was something that I really tried to focus on and sharpen over the last few days.”
Sale has lacked a third pitch, especially against righties. The opposition went 18-for-40 (.450 batting average) with two homers and two doubles against Sale’s changeup in the regular season.
The lefty uses the changeup primarily against right-handed hitters. He threw 152 changeups (143 to righties and nine to left-handed batters).
Sale posted a 2.90 ERA in his first eight starts this year before the game against Washington. He said there’s nothing wrong with him physically and he didn’t hit a wall.
“No, it was just one of those things. It kind of got out of whack,” he said. “I’m not one for excuses, but I had two years off. You know, I didn’t do much pitching. I did zero pitching actually. So I needed repetitions. Any time you want to be good at something or any time you want to be consistent at something you need reps. You just have to do it.
“You can’t run a marathon without running a marathon,” Sale added. “You can’t just wake up one day and say, ‘You know what, I’m just going to run 26 miles and then do it and think you’re going to be successful at that.’ You have to practice that, and you have to just day in and day out just relentlessly, tirelessly work on that. And over the last week I’ve had enough time to do that, and we’ll see what we get tomorrow, but I like where we’re at.”
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