Red Sox Notes: Chris Sale Puts Together Strong Season Debut Vs. Rays

Chris Sale put together an impressive 2022 season debut that resulted in a 3-2 Red Sox loss — the second consecutive against the Rays in Tampa Bay.

Sale, who entered Tuesday with a career 2.09 ERA at Tropicana Field, continued to carry that same dominance in St. Petersburg, Fla. Making his 13th career start on the Rays’ home field, Sale delivered five scoreless innings while allowing just three hits, resulting in no runs to go along with five strikeouts. Since joining Boston in 2017, it was Sale’s 23rd outing of lasting at least five innings of scoreless work — tied for most in the American League with Justin Verlander — per Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long.

“I just want to keep building off of it,” Sale told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Keep throwing strikes, keep staying strong, and just attacking hitters.”

Sale added: “I feel a lot stronger than I did at any time last year. Much better physical spot, mental spot… just gotta get my reps in.”

When asked if he felt better tonight than he did at any point last year, Sale replied, “No question. Not even close.”

The improvements were evident beyond Sale’s final pitching line. His fastball averaged 95.1 mph in the season debut, a noticeable improvement from last year’s 93.6 mph — first noted by Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe.

Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Rays game:

— Both Trevor Story and Matt Strahm exited the game early with injuries. Story suffered a right hand contusion while Strahm sustained a left wrist contusion. Following Story’s departure in the fifth, Jeter Downs replaced him, taking over Story’s at-bat with a 3-2 count. Downs, who went 2-for-2 in the contest, singled on the first pitch he saw.

— The Red Sox scored two runs in the fifth inning, in which Franchy Cordero successfully converted on a sacrifice bunt attempt and Bobby Dalbec connected on his second triple of the season. Boston’s efforts weren’t enough to completely raddle Rays starter Corey Kluber with the fifth ultimately being the only inning of run-scoring offense to show from the Boston lineup.

— The loss drops the Red Sox to 2-8 against the Rays this season, and 11-22 against the AL East entirely. Boston is also losers in four of their five games played at Tropicana Field this year.

— The Red Sox will have to get back at the the Rays with the third game of the four-game set coming Wednesday. First pitch from Tropicana Field is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.