Red Sox ace Chris Sale set for dual Opening Day starts
The Boston Red Sox are marching towards Opening Day on March 28th against the Mariners in Seattle, and their top ace will be on the mound.
Spring training is winding down and clubs are beginning to get their final rosters prepared for Opening Day. Red Sox Manager Alex Cora is no different as he’s already begun to prepare his chess board for 2019. His first move was naming Chris Sale as the Opening Day starter for Boston as reported by Christopher Smith of Masslive.com. If all things go as planned Sale will also be on the mound when the Red Sox open Fenway Park for the 2019 campaign.
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For the second year in a row, Chris Sale has been tasked with the mission of getting Boston’s season off on the right foot. Or should I say left foot? The Condor made his spring training debut against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday and didn’t show any signs of rust. Sale would go on to strike out 7 over 4 IP and conclude his day with a bullpen session. That’s a hell of a way to make a debut and Sale sure looks ready to get this season going.
Sale will once again lead a proverbial murderer’s row of a starting rotation in 2019. Considering the Red Sox have retained all of their starters going into this season, there doesn’t seem to be much change to the order of the pitchers. Red Sox Nation will most likely see Sale followed by David Price, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Cora has also stated that he plans to use a sixth starter to give his rotation an extra rest day due to the Sox opening the season with an 11-game road trip.
The Red Sox will open Fenway Park against AL East rivals the Toronto Blue Jays on April 9th. Thanks to the extra starter in the rotation towards the end of the road trip, Sale will be scheduled to take the mound at Fenway. Sale was the rock of the rotation last season and was an early Cy Young favorite until some shoulder inflammation reared its ugly head. The shoulder issues would plague him for the rest of the season and into the playoffs.
Though he was pegged to be the Game 1 starter throughout the postseason a bad mix of the shoulder and a mystery stomach ailment would hinder the quality of his starts. The Conductor would make one last appearance in October striking out the side against the Dodgers while also making Manny Machado look like a goof. The questions and worries about his health would carry over into the offseason as the Red Sox were silent on the matter.
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His showing over the weekend against Atlanta did more speaking than any press conference ever could. He knew he had a short window to show what form he was in and he succeeded at doing just that. The Red Sox will have a major target on their backs this season and they seem more than ready to defend the throne. With the regular season kicking off next week, it’ll be up to Chris Sale to set the tone for 2019.