Chris Sale’s rehab continued Wednesday night for the Worcester Woo Sox, and the lefty starter had an up-and-down outing. Sale allowed one run on three hits and five walks in his fourth rehab start, and that apparently wasn’t good enough for the seven-time All-Star.
After the game, Sale was caught on video trashing the Woo Sox locker room out of disappointment in his performance.
Despite the rocky outing, and his subsequent outburst, Sale said he should be able to fix his issues.
“I’m very ready. I know today was a little bit of a hiccup, but it’s nothing that can’t be ironed out,” Sale said, via MassLive’s Katie Morrison. “[It was] not good. Decent at times, just command was bad today. Direction was bad. Nothing’s easy in this game, but things that are easier to clean up mechanically.”
Specifically, Sale said the walks were the issue on Wednesday, and he expects to fix the problem because he’s never had that issue before.
“I’m not very big on walking guys. That’s never really been my struggle. So if it is a struggle, I know that, hey, I just have to look at stuff, see where that is and clean it out,” Sale said. “That’s where my head’s at. This doesn’t really set me back other than not being able to get more reps. I wish I’d been able to go back out there and pitch for five, six, seven, eight, whatever it was.”
Sale suffered a stress fracture in his right rib cage during the lockout, which forced him to miss the beginning of the season. He then dealt with multiple setbacks that kept pushing his return date back.
After four rehab starts, Sale is on the verge of returning to the Red Sox rotation, potentially before the All-Star break. Boston certainly needs him for a run at the playoffs, and Sale seems to know that by his actions on Wednesday.
