Chris Sale had a dominant first inning for the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday night. So good, in fact, he thought it warranted a check from the home plate umpire.
Sale threw 16 pitches — 10 of them for strikes — with one walk and a strikeout. The Boston Red Sox southpaw walked one with a strikeout while hitting 98 mph on the radar gun.
Due to the crackdown on foreign substance use across baseball, Sale thought he’d be the nice guy and hand his hat over to the home plate umpire to assure he was not using substances.
The umpire, though, had zero desire to double-check if Sale had anything on his glove or hat.
Yeah, Sale is just that good, even after having Tommy John surgery.
For what it’s worth, Sale was checked after the second and third innings.
