Chris Sale continues to go through trials and tribulations, but it hasn’t impacted the mental makeup of the Boston Red Sox starter.
Sale, who exited Sunday afternoon’s loss to the New York Yankees with a broken pinkie on his throwing hand, remained positive when addressing reporters after the game. Sale threw just 24 pitches before being hit by a line drive by Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks.
“One look at this finger and I knew. I knew it immediately. It was that feeling of cold water running through your body when something like that happens,” Sale said after Boston’s 13-2 defeat, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “As soon as I hit the ground, fingers gone. It sucks. What are you going to do?”
Sale, though, is remaining optimistic in more ways than one. The hard-throwing lefty already was on the sideline for the first three months of the season due to a stress fracture in his rib cage, but is of the belief he’ll pitch again this season.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Sale responded when asked about his confidence in a return. “It’s a broken bone. I’ve been there. Four-to-six weeks, getting active again, moving around a little bit and we’ll see from there.”
Sale confirmed manager Alex Cora’s sentiments that he will meet with a hand specialist in Boston either Sunday night or Monday.
Sale, while admitting to the frustrations, also shared his big-picture mindset which helps him remain positive despite the fact he’s missed so much time the last three seasons.
“What can you do? Everyone gets knocked down. How do you get back up? That’s where I’m at again,” Sale said. “So, get back up, dust yourself off, clean it off, get back to it.
“Some of the other stuff, sometimes you think, ‘Why me?’ But two things I know for a fact right now: I have a lot of love in my corner, a lot of people that care about me and want me to succeed. And somebody somewhere is having a worse day that I am right now. That’s a fact,” Sale added. “The competitive side of me doesn’t want to accept that, but the person in me knows that. And if I want to sit here and cry about a broken finger and boohoo for me, I could do it. It’s just not fair to everyone in here and it’s not fair to people in the world, honestly. Like I said, there’s a lot more people out there worse off than I am right now.”
Here are some more notes from Red Sox-Yankees:
— Cora, while speaking after the contest completely overshadowed by Sale’s injury, added further insight on the pitcher explaining the left-hander would be checked out in Boston and the team would have a better idea what the recovery entails following that appointment. While Sale did hint a potential timeline for his return, the Red Sox have not revealed anything.
— The Red Sox struck out a season-high 16 times during Sunday’s loss to the Yankees.
— The Red Sox continued to look for a series victory against their American League East counterparts, but did not earn one before the MLB All-Star break. Boston went 12-26 against the division and were 0-10-1 in those respective series — the lone split being against the Yankees earlier in July.
— Franchy Cordero could use a break as bad as anyone. Cordero was 0-for-16 during Boston’s most recent road trip against the Tampa Bay Rays and Yankees, striking out 15 times in that span.
— The Red Sox will return to the diamond when they host the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday at Fenway Park.
