Chris Sale made what may have been his final rehab start Wednesday for Triple-A Worcester, and it was a bit of a rollercoaster outing.
On the positive side, he struck out five, showed pretty good velocity, didn't give up much hard contact, and only allowed one run. On the negative side, he also walked five and lasted just 3 2/3 innings.
Alex Cora talks Bello, Sale, Whitlock and more
Sale hit 97 mph on his first pitch of the night and his fastball sat around 93-95 mph for most of the night, with him occasionally dialing up to 96. It was his fastball that he seemed to have the least amount of control over, though, as his slider and changeup looked pretty effective for the most part.
All three hits Sale gave up were on soft contact, including two infield singles, so that's relatively encouraging. It's not like he was getting knocked around.
Command was clearly the biggest issue, though. Sale threw just 42 of his 72 pitches for strikes. He walked at least one batter in all four of his innings, including walking in a run on his final batter faced in the fourth.
The pitch count was right in the range of what the Red Sox were planning, but they were probably hoping he'd at least get through four, if not five innings.
Sale has now made four rehab starts. Even if Wednesday wasn't as crisp as the Red Sox would have wanted, they could very well decide that's enough anyways.
Manager Alex Cora already said Sale could return to Boston next week, which would likely set him up for a return in one of the Red Sox' four games in Tampa. They could certainly use him with fellow starters Nathan Eovaldi and Rich Hill still on the injured list.
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