Everyone knows the MLB season is painstakingly long. 162 games played at the highest level in the world over five months is straining on everyone. This includes even the best players in the league.
Because of this unavoidable truth, the Red Sox have forced ultra-competitive, Cy Young favorite Chris Sale into a 10-day vacation by placing him on the DL. As expected, Sale wasn’t too pleased to have to take time off.
"I'm a pitcher that pitches and I don't like sitting on the sidelines and watching someone else do my job for me."
Chris Sale is "optimistic" he will be back from the DL soon. https://t.co/iaRzqGCBU7 pic.twitter.com/PoejhGBEJx
— NESN (@NESN) July 31, 2018
The time off will be good for Sale in the long run. Last year he tossed the second most innings of his career at 214.1 and, to be objective, as always, it showed in the playoffs.
Since the Red Sox now have a real manager in Alex Cora they are taking the proactive approach with some recent soreness in Sale’s shoulder.
Now, to address the obvious. This vacation will mean that Sale will not appear in the upcoming series against rival Yankees. I’m sure Sale would like to be out there turning Stanton into a pretzel with his slider, but he would feel the same about missing any start. That’s just the competitor he is.
As for the Yankee fans thinking the playing field is a little more even with Sale now out this series while Judge is on DL himself, you’re wrong.
There is no escaping the spanking that this Red Sox lineup will hand out to the Yankees pitching staff. This weekend will show that with or without Sale, the Red Sox are simply better than the Yankees.
I’d say they’ll prove it again in October, but I have a gut feeling that Judge and company may be watching the Sox play Seattle in ALDS from the comfort of their homes.