Chris Sale Gives Up Four Runs in Five Innings, Lowers ERA

The Red Sox’ Tuesday night bout against the Yankees was supposed to be a statement game. After the team’s immense struggles coming out of the gate, they had a chance to march onto their longtime rival’s turf and show everyone the team who won the World Series in October was still capable of playing at a high level. No better way to do that than on the back of Chris Sale, who has historically dominated the Yankees.

Well, they blew their chance. Sale let up four runs in five innings- and this actually lowered his ERA, from 9.00 to 8.50. The Yankees, with nearly every starter and valuable player on the injured list, pummeled the Sox ace and ran away with the game. The Red Sox got blown out and lost 8-0.

It’s a long season in the game of baseball, but it’s awfully hard to refrain from mashing the panic button if you’re a Red Sox fan. MassLive’s Chris Smith mentioned in his interview with The Big Lead last week the lack of spring training innings for the Red Sox starters might have had an impact on their disastrous performances to start the year. Sale’s velocity returned tonight, but his pitch placement was just off enough to get shelled.

Of course, that’s only the first of many issues with the Sox. Nothing is going right; that happens in sports sometimes, but we’re three weeks into the regular season and Boston is dead last in the division, six games behind the Rays. At least the Yankees have injuries as the foundation of their bad start. The Red Sox have nothing. With the same roster as last season, they’ll likely get their act together soon, but by then it may be too late.