The Red Sox can’t afford for Chris Sale to repeat his performance in last year’s postseason. In order to win, their ace has to be dominant.
Not since Pedro Martinez in the late 1990s/early 2000s have the Boston Red Sox had a starting pitcher as electrifying and as thrilling as 29-year-old Chris Sale.
When Pedro was in his prime, there wasn’t another experience in sports that could compare to catching one of his starts. He hit his absolute peak in 1999, turning in a 23-4 campaign with a 2.07 ERA for the Red Sox — nothing short of pure dominance.
If you were a Red Sox fan, you did your best to watch as many games as you could, but you made sure that you never, ever missed one of Pedro’s starts.
In 2018, exactly 20 years after Pedro arrived in Boston, Sale has pretty much had the same kind of effect on Red Sox Nation. As Red Sox fans, we make it a point to never miss one of his starts, because we know that we are going to witness absolute greatness.
Say what you want about the power hitting heroics of J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts, but there hasn’t been a more electrifying experience as a Sox fan in 2018 than watching Sale relentlessly mow down hitters down one by one.
In 2017, his first year in Boston, Sale went 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA.
This year, his ERA shrank down to 2.11 with a deceiving record of 12-4 (had it not been for a month spent on the DL, as well as some blown games by the bullpen and a lack of run support, Sale could’ve easily won 20-plus games).
But there has been one blemish on Sale’s career, and that has been his tendency to break down late in seasons. We saw signs of it during his seven years with the Chicago White Sox, and it was on full display when the Red Sox reached October last year.
He started Game 1 of the ALDS in Houston and allowed seven runs on nine hits in just five innings. He made a relief appearance later in the series and allowed two more runs, finishing the postseason with a hugely disappointing 8.38 ERA.
If that happens again, the Red Sox have no chance of even getting past the New York Yankees in the ALDS, much less going to the World Series. Plain and simple, they need Sale to succeed where he failed a year ago.
He was a Cy Young candidate all year long, and they need him to pitch like a Cy Young candidate in October.
Last year, even though it was hard to watch, Sale had a reason for falling apart in October. The Red Sox had used him as a workhorse for six straight months, and he practically carried that team on his shoulders all the way to an AL East title and a postseason appearance.
It made complete sense why he just straight up ran out of gas at the end.
This year, Sale has no excuse. He spent nearly the entire month of August on the DL with minor shoulder inflammation, and even though he was active for most of September, he didn’t really see a lot of innings.
He should be very well rested as the Sox move into October, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be as dominant as ever.
It will be interesting to see which version of Sale shows up at Fenway Park for Game 1 against the Yankees on Friday night. Boston’s championship hopes depend on it.
If Sale isn’t his electrifying, thrilling, competitive, dominating self, the Red Sox aren’t going to make it very far.