Chris Sale is a fierce competitor, a hard-throwing pitcher who sets the tone on the mound and has been known to get his own way off it.
Given those character traits, this fact about the Boston Red Sox left-hander might surprise you: Sale hasn’t shaken off a catcher in six years, according to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford.
Sale told Bradford this week he lets his catcher call all of his pitches during starts, and Red Sox backstop Sandy Leon confirmed Sale hasn’t shaken him off once in 10 appearances this season. That’s pretty unusual for a pitcher of Sale’s caliber, as pitchers often override their signal-callers. So, why doesn’t Sale do the same?
“It simplifies it for me,” Sale told Bradford. “For me personally, the less I think on a baseball field, just reacting and doing, I don’t have contradicting thoughts going on in mind when I’m pitching. I’m never second-guessing myself. It’s never, ‘Should I throw this here? Should I throw that there?’ Whatever pitch it is, it’s just executing. For me, it’s just easier.”
Sale said his habit started in college, where his coaches would call pitches and get very upset if pitchers shook them off. And while he occasionally defied his catcher early in his Major League Baseball career, the five-time All-Star soon placed complete faith in his catchers’ calls.
That strategy obviously has worked — the 28-year-old is off to a historically good start in Boston this season while working with Leon, who is a very good pitch-caller. Of course, it also helps to have such a devastating arsenal of pitches that will give hitters fits no matter what Sale throws.
“When you look at Chris’ stuff, it’s just the amount of confidence he has,” Red Sox pitching coach Carl Willis told Bradford. “He feels like, ‘Hey, whatever you want me to throw, I’m going to throw it and they’re not going to hit it.’
“He also knows these hitters. He may not tell the catchers what he wants to do, but he knows what he wants to do, and if there is a pitch called he knows exactly where he wants to utilize that pitch.”
Thumbnail photo via Neville E. Guard/USA TODAY Sports Images
