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Jeff PassanESPN
NEW YORK — Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale said he is “as frustrated as I’ve ever been on a baseball field” after another mediocre outing Tuesday, calling his performance this season “flat-out embarrassing” after an 8-0 loss to the New York Yankees.
While Sale flashed the high-powered fastball and biting slider that defined him as he established himself as one of the game’s best pitchers, Yankees hitters still tuned him up for four runs in five innings. Sale’s season ERA dropped to 8.50, and he suffered his fourth loss of the year, matching his total for the entire 2018 season.
“I just flat-out stink right now,” Sale said. “I don’t know what it is. When you’re going good, it’s good. When you’re going bad, it’s pretty bad.”
Pitching on six days’ rest, Sale cruised through the first two innings, with his fastball topping out at 97 mph after languishing in the low 90s in his first three starts. A pair of two-out, run-scoring singles in the third from D.J. LeMahieu and Luke Voit plated the Yankees’ first two runs.
An inning later, outfielder Clint Frazier whacked a hanging Sale changeup out to right field — the fifth home run he has allowed in 18 innings this season — and rookie Mike Tauchman doubled home another run to stake James Paxton a healthy lead.
Paxton didn’t need much. He won the battle of hard-throwing left-handers, striking out 12 and allowing two hits over eight shutout innings.
As Boston’s record dropped to 6-12, the Red Sox tried to keep perspective on their perplexing start following a World Series title. Manager Alex Cora took solace in the return of Sale’s raw stuff, expecting that it would lead to more come his fifth start this season.
“I don’t want to say it’s a work in progress because we’re not here to build up,” Cora said. “I’m not going to be surprised if, in his next outing, he’s right where we need him to be. … He’s very close to the ‘real’ Chris Sale.”
Asked if the real version of him is coming, Sale said: “You’d better f—ing hope so.”