Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale was dealt a significant blow on Sunday, when he broke his pinky on a 107 mph comebacker off the bat of New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks.
While it is unknown how much time Sale will miss with the injury, the 33-year-old offered an optimistic outlook on the injury after the game.
“What can you do? Everyone gets knocked down. How do you get back up? That’s where I’m at again,” Sale said, as seen on NESN. “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.”
Sale made his return on July 12 from a stress fracture in his ribcage just before the start of spring training. The lefty also dealt with a setback later in his recovery that pushed back his eventual return by over a month. With a break in his pitching hand, it’s likely he makes a return to the injured list and starts his road to recovery yet again.
