Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale is still sharpening his tools

Boston Red Sox lefty Chris Sale is rounding back into form

Chris Sale claims he’s still fighting to regain his vintage form but you wouldn’t now it from the results he’s produced in his two starts since returning to the Boston Red Sox following surgery that sidelined him for over two years.

The lefty shutout the Texas Rangers over five innings on Friday, allowing only five hits and a walk while striking out five. He moved to 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA this season with 13 strikeouts and one walk over 10 innings.

Most pitchers would be satisfied with those results but not a perfectionist like Sale. While he felt that he was more consistent than he was in his previous start against the Baltimore Orioles, Sale admitted that he was still fighting against himself with his other pitches, according to MassLIve’s Christopher Smith.

Sale showed great command with his four-seam fastball, averaging 92.1 mph and topping out at 95.9, per Baseball Savant. He generated five of his seven swings-and-misses with the fastball and notched all five of his strikeouts with it. Sale struck out a pair swinging with his fastball to end the first inning and sent another down swinging against his heater in the second. Consecutive batters struck out looking at the fastball in the third – two pairs of shoes to end the frame.

Not that the Rangers were able to do much damage against his offspeed or breaking pitches but Sale indicated it took a few innings to get a feel for them. He threw 13 changeups with one going for a called strike plus three whiffs but also gave up a pair of hits, including a first-inning double that was the only extra-base hit he allowed.

As electric as his fastball can be, Sale’s filthy slider is his trademark. The pitch isn’t quite back to where he wants it to be though. Sale threw 16 sliders but didn’t generate any whiffs with it. That’s normally a put-away pitch for him but the Rangers lineup wasn’t chasing.

"“That’s one of my tools I’m still sharpening,” Sale said about the slider. “It’s weird because I had a really good feel for it a few weeks ago. And just over the last couple — like I said, I’m fighting myself right now. I have some things I have to get better at. And that’s one of them. It will get there. I know it will. It’s just little things right now with getting my arm out and fighting my front side. Consistency will come with repetition.”"

The Red Sox have allowed Sale to feast on two of the bottom-feeders of the American League in his first two starts. While we may have preferred to use our ace to fend off the division rivals battling Boston for playoff spots, bringing him back cautiously against weaker teams allows Sale to build up his confidence and work out the kinks in his delivery before sending him out to face the beasts of the AL East.

Sale can get away with using a slider that he’s still in the process of sharpening against a Rangers lineup that ranks near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories. Carving up the Rays and Yankees won’t be as easy if he’s still working his way back.

While the Red Sox are preparing for the stretch run, Cora reminded us that this is essentially April for Sale. It’s normal for pitchers to need a few starts early in the season to ramp up their velocity and get a feel for their pitches. There’s nothing normal about Sale’s journey back to the mound so we shouldn’t expect him to be in mid-season form out of the gate.

Sale will gradually build up his pitch counts to be able to last longer than five inning and he’ll develop the confidence he needs in his secondary pitches. He’s not quite there yet but if the results we’ve seen so far are an example of what Sale can do when he’s not at full strength, the rest of the league should be getting nervous about the possibility of facing him in October.