Christian Vazquez’s offense at the moment demands that he be in the starting lineup most nights. But Chris Sale hasn’t had much success when tossing to Vazquez.
And the numbers certainly show it.
The Boston Red Sox are 5-7 when Sandy Leon catches Sale but is just 1-5 with Vazquez catching the ace lefty. So doing the math, the Red Sox are just 6-12 in the 18 games started by Sale this season.
Not only are the Sox losing at a higher clip when Sale works with Vazquez, the lefty has downright struggled, working with a 6.68 ERA.
But with a long break ahead of the southpaw, manager Alex Cora believes Sale can still regroup.
“It wasn’t good … just a lot of pitches in the zone,” he said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I know he’s disappointed but we’re going to keep working, obviously. Now he has a long break, and hopefully, when he comes back we’ll get him back on track.”
Vazquez continues to mash, clubbing his 13th home run in the loss, and it’s tough to pinpoint if there is a disconnect between Sale and the backstop. One thing is for sure, Sale had a rough first-half, and once again voiced discontent over his performances.
But with about half a season left to play, there is still plenty of ball left for both Sale and the Sox to play.
Here are some more notes from Wednesday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game:
— It isn’t very often Chris Sale gives up multiple home runs, but that’s just what happened Wednesday night. The last time the southpaw did so was Opening Day on March 28 when he gave up three long balls to the Seattle Mariners.
— It was also the ninth time Sale has given up four or more runs in a game this season. He did so only twice in 2018.
— Sale has gone seven or more innings in just five games in 2019. That number has been rapidly decreasing since 2019, where it peaked at 23.
— Boston is just 3-31 when trailing after six frames. The Sox now are 23-19 when scoring first and 39-27 when hitting a home run in a game.
— Xander Bogaerts, who just was named to the American League All-Star team on Wednesday, had one of his poorer performances at the dish.
The shortstop went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. It’s the first time he has fanned four times in a game in his 7-year career.
