The numbers are not pretty for Chris Sale this season.
Through 19 starts, the left-hander is 3-9 with a 4.27 ERA. He's already allowed 17 home runs this year after allowing just 11 all of last season. While he's had some tough luck losses, overall he's been disappointing and he's expressed a great deal of frustration following his starts of late.
The coaching staff has done everything they can to try and help fix Sale's issues, but now the hope is one of the other pitchers can maybe pinpoint something.
Sale's bullpen in between starts on Tuesday was a unusual as a number of pitchers went out to the bullpen to watch.
“It was teammates being teammates. Just being there and watching," manager Alex Cora said. "Everybody knows about the game and obviously pitchers know about mechanics and usage and all that, but I think for them to be there it means a lot. It means a lot where we’re at as a team and you never know, someone might pick something up that me, Dana or CB hasn’t seen. It was good. Sandy and Christian were there too, so you don’t see that often.
"I think that was good for the team to let him know, ‘Hey, we’re here for you.’”
Sale hasn't won a game in over a month and has allowed five earned runs in three straight starts.
The Red Sox hope something can be discovered and corrected by the time Sale takes the mound Thursday afternoon in the series finale against the Blue Jays.
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