After Eight Long Years, We Finally Saw Chris Sale's Postseason Debut And It Was Garbage
We’re not gonna sugarcoat anything here, Red Sox fans. This is bad news.
No, not that the Red Sox lost. Well, yeah. That sucks. Obviously you never want to start out a series 0-1, especially with your ace on the mound, but what’s worse than that is that our worst fears have been realized. There’s no second gear that Chris Sale could kick it into to shake his subpar second half. At least, that’s what his first postseason start would indicate, which was statistically his worst start of the entire year if you go by game score. Not one of the worst — the worst.
Coming into his start on August 1, Sale had a 2.37 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, and a 12.80 K/9. All of those marks led the American League. And with two months to go, it looked like Sale was a slam dunk to win the American League Cy Young award. In his first start in August, he allowed seven earned runs to the Cleveland Indians, and it has been quite the bumpy ride from there. Sure, he’s had some good starts mixed in, but there were a lot of bad ones, too, and the inconsistency overall has been troublesome to say the least.
Since August 1, including last night’s postseason start, Sale has made 12 starts and has a 4.69 ERA (not nice) to go along with a 1.24 WHIP. His 13.06 K/9 still leads the majors over that span, but that’s fairly misleading, because, despite all the punchouts, batters are still teeing Sale up at an alarming rate. He’s allowed 2.03 home runs per nine innings over his last 12 starts, the second highest rate of any starter in the majors who qualifies since the start of August. In fact, after serving up three bombs in Game 1 of the ALDS, Sale has now allowed seven home runs in just his last two starts alone. Fuckingggg yikes.
There’s a lesson to be learned here if you’re the Red Sox, though. You acquired Sale to win a World Series, right? That’s the goal, if I’m not mistaken. Well, he was already sputtering over the final two months of the season, so it would seem unreasonable to expect that he’d magically revert back to the version of himself that he was over the first four months of the year. Just like the Red Sox did with Pedro Martinez back in the day, they’re going to have to build in breaks over the course of the season to limit his innings in hopes that they can avoid the wall that he hit in the second half.
But that doesn’t help Boston now. As we all know, everything gets magnified in the postseason. Emotions are running high, and every pitch can feel like the end of the world. With that being said, I got plenty of tweets from Red Sox fans throwing in the towel after one game. Sad, really. Being realistic here, they’re not winning a championship if Sale continues to serve up bombs and get shelled like that — I agree. However, can we have some fucking faith in our guy Drew Pomeranz AKA Big Smooth AKA the leader of the Dwew Tang Clan himself? Holy shit, guys. It’s a five-game series, not a one-game playoff.
I’m not standing on my soapbox proclaiming that the Red Sox will even win this series, never mind the World Series, but one game and that’s it? You guys are done? Well then. At least we’ve weeded out the fans who haven’t been watching Pomeranz pitch this year. I get it — if you told me back in spring training that Pomeranz would be getting the ball in Game 2 of a postseason series, then I’d be right there with you nodding in agreement that the Red Sox are hardcore fucked. However, put some respeck on Pomeranz’s name, who had the seventh lowest ERA in the American League this year (3.32). Lower than Justin Verlander, actually. He’s pretty good, right? Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He just took your lunch money in Game 1.
The series ain’t over, boys and girls. Game 1 was, without question, a Pat McAfee kick in the dick with a running start, but Red Sox fans are SHOOK after getting swept last October. It’s like everybody’s brains are conditioned to anticipate the sweep if Game 1 is a loss. If Pomeranz goes out there and does what he’s done all year, then we’ve got ourselves a series going back to Boston for two games. By the way, Houston’s Game 2 starter Dallas Keuchel has a 9.88 ERA against the Red Sox, the worst ERA he has against any team in the American League.
Also, I know that noted idiot John Farrell has Doug Fister slated to start Game 3 at Fenway Park, but I’m still advocating for David Price to get the ball in that game, even more so if the Red Sox are down 0-2. Fister has a 4.67 ERA in nine starts at Fenway Park this year. Price is still their best option, even if it’s only for four innings. I know Farrell won’t change his mind, but he should.
.@TonyMassarotti sounds off on #RedSox for playing Nunez pic.twitter.com/0TR7xjzvAA
— NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSBoston) October 5, 2017
Was it predictable, Mazz?
I mean, if Farrell can put Eduardo Nunez, who missed 20 of Boston’s final 22 games, and his gigantic knee brace in the lineup over Hanley Ramirez at DH, only to watch his fucking knee explode in his first at-bat, then he can put Price and his bionic elbow on the mound as the Game 3 starter. If Price gets blown up, then it’ll be the most poetic ending to this weird ass season that one could imagine. And if he doesn’t…well, then now you have a former Cy Young award-winner in your rotation to pick up Sale.
Wouldn’t that be ironic? The Red Sox went out and acquired Sale because they felt like Price couldn’t get it done in October, and then it’s Price who ends up picking up Sale in the postseason. That’d be something.
Final score: Astros 8, Red Sox 2 — Houston leads series 1-0