Boston
They have the best ERA in the majors, an 11-9 record (heading into Friday night) after sweeping the Kansas City Royals and two prospects in Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech who should be prime-time players before too long.
But no one at Fenway Park has any regrets over the Boston Red Sox’ decision to deal the future for the present. Sale is thriving in his new socks, giving Red Sox fans hope they finally can end their three-year championship drought.
Including Thursday night’s 3-0 loss to the New York Yankees, Sale has a 1.19 ERA in only 37⅔ innings, dominating as he did in Chicago and making it all look easy.
In records dating back to 1893, Sale’s 42 strikeouts were the third-most of any pitcher in his first four games with a club, following Pedro Martinez, who had 44 with the Red Sox in 1998, and Randy Johnson, who also had 44 in his first year with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1999. He added 10 more in Thursday’s 3-0 loss.
“He’s lights out, man,” second baseman Dustin Pedroia said on Wednesday. “Every time he takes the ball, he competes with great stuff. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s fun to play behind.
“There have been a couple of times when I’ve been kind of flat-footed because we didn’t get a ball out there. He’s striking everybody out. He has been unbelievable.”
Sale’s command has been on with his fastball, slider and changeup, making him almost unhittable at times.
“He’s firing strikes with everything,” fellow Boston starter David Price said. “Whenever you can consistently do that with all your pitches, when you have the stuff he has, it makes the game look a lot easier than it really is. That’s what he has been doing. Hopefully he can continue … (and) do some pretty special things.”
No one is too surprised.
Sale, after all, has been one of the game’s best pitchers since coming up with the White Sox in 2010, averaging 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings with a 1.06 WHIP in 228 games in Chicago. He signed a team-friendly contract and never complained, even though the Sox got a new Porsche for the price of a 1971 Pinto.
Still, the White Sox decided Sale had to go to start the rebuild, so general manager Rick Hahn dealt him to the Red Sox and never looked back.
Joining Price and 2016 Cy Young winner Rick Porcello in the rotation with a killer lineup, the Red Sox quickly became favorites to get back to the World Series. Expectations have been muted a bit with Price on the disabled list with elbow soreness, but if he comes back strong, the Red Sox could be unstoppable.
Sale stepped into the heated Red Sox-Yankees feud for the first time on Thursday, facing Masahiro Tanaka in the finale of a rain-shortened series. He always fared well against New York with the White Sox, going 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA, the lowest ERA for any pitcher against the Yankees since it became an official stat in 1912.
In Boston, as it was in Chicago, everyone looks forward to a Sale start.
“He’s electric,” center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. said. “He’s a special pitcher, a special teammate. I faced him a few times the last couple of years. Didn’t like it. It’s better off now that he’s on this side.”
The Chicago media mostly left Sale alone and he has been low-key here as well, staying out of sight in the clubhouse and avoiding attention.
“He stays away from the media,” Price said. “I don’t ever see the media asking him to do interviews or whatever.”
Everything tends to get magnified in Boston, whereas Sale’s twin controversies last year in Chicago — ripping team executive vice president Ken Williams for the Adam LaRoche fiasco and slicing up throwback jerseys — blew over quickly and didn’t affect his popularity.
Asked in spring training how he would react in Boston if the same incident happened, Sale joked: “I don’t think they have throwbacks here.”
If Sale continues to put up numbers like this, White Sox fans may be asking for years why management couldn’t build around him instead of dealing him in his prime.
Price said he understood the thinking.
“The White Sox just hadn’t done what they were expected to do when they had that core of guys there for quite a while,” he said. “They were never able to advance to where they wanted to get to. So they had to make a decision for the organization.
“Hopefully it works out for them, and us as well.”