Tag: chris sale

Looking at How Former #RedSox Prospect Michael Kopech Got to Where He Is Today.

The Red Sox are currently in Chicago taking on a 53-81 rebuilding White Sox team.

Despite the poor record, the White Sox do have some players worth watching, including tonight’s starting pitcher, Michael Kopech.

A former Red Sox prospect himself, Kopech may be mostly known for being part of the trade that sent ace left-hander Chris Sale to Boston, but I thought I would highlight some moments from his young career that saw him make his big league debut just a few weeks ago.

Selected by the Red Sox with the 33rd overall pick in the 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Mount Pleasant High School in Texas, Kopech forgoed his commitment to the University of Arizona and signed with Boston for a $1,500,000 bonus on June 17th.

Assigned to the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Red Sox for his first professional season, the right-hander posted a 4.61 ERA and .216 BAA in eight starts and 13.2 innings pitched en route to a league title.

In 2015, Kopech made headlines for testing positive for Oxilofrine, a banned substance that violates the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Receiving a 50 game suspension because of the failed drug test on July 16th, the Texas native still posted a 2.65 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) over 65 innings pitched with the South Atlantic League’s Greenville Drive.

Less than a year later, Kopech’s name once again came up in the news, and not for positive reasons, as he got in an altercation with a teammate during spring training and ended up breaking his right hand.

Missing over four months of action because of the fractured throwing hand, the now 22-year-old made 12 starts between Low A Lowell and High A Salem while posting a 2.08 ERA to go along with 86 strikeouts in only 56.1 innings pitched.

That would end up being Kopech’s last season in the Red Sox organization, and he worked his way up to becoming the team’s best right-handed pitching prospect before he was traded on December 6th, 2016.

Along with top prospect Yoan Moncada, 24th ranked prospect Luis Alexander Basabe, and Victor Diaz, Kopech was part of a blockbuster deal that ultimately landed the Red Sox the best left-hander in the game in Chris Sale from the White Sox.

In his first full season in the White Sox organization, not only was Kopech named the team’s best overall pitching prospect, he also made an appearance in the 2017 All-Star Futures Game in Miami, where he tossed a scoreless third inning.

On the 2017 campaign as a whole, the former first round pick posted a 2.88 ERA in 134.1 innings pitched between Double A Birmingham and Triple A Charlotte while being named the Southern League’s Most Outstanding Pitcher.

Entering this season as Chicago’s top pitching prospect once again, Kopech made 24 starts with the Charlotte Knights where he struck out 170 batters in 126.1 innings pitched before getting promoted to the White Sox.

Getting the call up on August 21st, the right-hander’s debut was shorter than expected due to a rain delay, but he struck out four Twins while scattering three hits over two scoreless innings of work.

Five days later, Kopech was back at it again, this time against the Detroit Tigers, where he pitched six innings of one-run ball to go along with another four punch outs and his first big league win.

And that is where things stand today.

Michael Kopech will be making his third career start Friday night, and it will come against the toughest opponent he has yet to face in the Boston Red Sox.

First pitch of tonight’s game is scheduled for 8:10 PM ET.

RECAP: Chris Sale Dazzles in Return from DL as #RedSox Complete Four-Game Sweep of Orioles in Three Days.

Less than 24 hours after sweeping the Orioles in a day-night doubleheader on Saturday, the Red Sox were looking for the real four-game sweep this afternoon to head into an off day on a positive note.

Making his 23rd start of the season and first since July 27th due to a 10-day disabled list stint caused by left shoulder inflammation, Chris Sale picked off right where he left off and flat dominated at Camden Yards on Sunday.

Granted, it was against a last place Orioles team, but still, for not pitching in a big league game for over two weeks, Sale really did pick up right where he left off in this one.

Pitching five complete frames, the left-hander held Baltimore scoreless on one hit, a single, while not walking a single batter on the afternoon.

The most incredible part of this Sale start, at least for me, had to be the number of strikeouts.

As he faced 16 total Orioles through those five scoreless innings, Sale managed to punch out 12(!!!). 12! In five innings! That’s 80% of the outs he recorded. All done with just 68 pitches. Truly surreal.

Out of those 68 pitches thrown, 48 of which were strikes, the Florida native induced 15 total swings and misses on the day.while

Relying on his four-seam fastball 31 times, the seven-time All Star topped out at 99.7 MPH with it in the third inning. Another sign that Sale’s left shoulder is feeling quite fine.

Alex Cora made it clear following the game that Sale was going to be limited to 75 pitches no matter what happened. And given the fact he completed five innings in such a convincing fashion with those 68 pitches, it makes sense why they did not want to put him back out there only to have him not finish the sixth.

It’s also worth noting that this was the 29-year-old’s first in-game action this month, so easing him back into things isn’t such a bad plan either.

Regardless, Sale maintained the stellar form he has put on display time in and time out this season, and because of that, he increased his scoreless innings streak up to 28 dating back to July 6th.

Including today, Sale owns a nice 0.69 ERA over his last 10 starts with 109 strikeouts in 65 innings pitched over that span. He has not given up a home run in a start since the first day of June.

As he improved to 12-4 on the season, the lanky lefty will look to build on an impressive return to the rotation in his next time out, which should come sometime next week against either the Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Indians, depending on how the upcoming off days impact pitching matchups.

In relief of Sale, the Red bullpen was once gain turned to at a rather early spot starting in the sixth inning.

  • Tyler Thornburg entered in a 2-0 game and retired the first two batters he faced, but followed that up by loading the bases on a single and two walks in a frame he was unable to finish. Out of the 24 pitches Thornburg threw, 10 went for strikes. That is not good.
  • Ryan Brasier would have to come on and attempt to get out of the jam Thornburg had created, and he managed by getting Trey Mancini to strikeout in a nerve-wracking seven pitch at bat that ended the inning and left the bases juiced.
  • Brian Johnson, despite moving up to the rotation earlier in the week, got the call for the seventh, and he needed just 16 pitches to work his way around a leadoff walk in an otherwise scoreless frame of work.
  • Matt Barnes’ August struggles continued in the eighth, as he allowed three of the first four Orioles he faced to reach and load the bases in a two-run game. Fortunately, after surrendering Baltimore’s lone run on a Trey Mancini sacrifice fly, the UCONN product buckled down and fanned Tim Beckham on four pitches to retire the side.
  • Finally, Craig Kimbrel came on for the save in the ninth with a brand new three run lead to work with. He too continued some recent struggles by allowing the tying run to come to the plate with runners on first and second, but struck out the final pair of Orioles hitters he faced to notch his 35th save and secure his team’s 85th win of 2018.

So, over the past three days/four games, Red Sox relievers has been responsible for 19.2 innings pitched out of the bullpen en route to the four-game sweep. Having two off days in the next four days will certainly come in handy to get those guys some rest.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against a familiar foe in Orioles RHP Alex Cobb.

Despite the rough first year he has had in Baltimore, Cobb was certainly more reminiscent of his days with the Tampa Bay Rays in one of his better outings of the season on Sunday.

Starting the scoring right away in the top half of the first was none other than Steve Pearce, who greeted Cobb by mashing a solo shot to left field to give the Red Sox an early advantage. Yet another big fly off a former team for Pearce, his 10th of the year.

Fast forward to the fourth, and a leadoff double off the bat of Brock Holt would turn into Boston second’s run of the afternoon thanks to a fielding error in right field on a JD Martinez single. Despite Holt coming in to score on the E9 committed by Adam Jones, Martinez was not credited with an RBI on the play.

Five innings later and going into the ninth with a one-run lead, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts provided some late game insurance with a pair of RBI base knocks.

Bradley Jr. drove in Eduardo Nunez, who technically got the rally started with a leadoff single off of O’s reliever Mychal Givens, from second to make it a 3-1 game.

In the very next at bat, Mookie Betts, in a 2-0 hitter’s count, ripped an RBI double off of Givens to score Bradley Jr. all the way from first and extend his hitting streak to eight games.

4-1 on Betts’ 63rd RBI of the season, which would turn out to be the final score in favor of the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon.

Some notes from this win:

From @SoxNotes: The Red Sox’ 85 wins are their most ever through 120 games. They are 50 games above .500 for the first time since 1946.

Another one from @SoxNotes: Chris Sale has a 0.20 ERA in his last 7 starts (44.0 IP, 1 R). According to , that is the lowest ERA by a Red Sox pitcher over any 7-start span since earned runs became an official stat in 1913. In those 7 starts, Sale has 79 K and 6 BB.

—

At 85-35, the Red Sox will head to Philadelphia via train for a quick two-game set against the Phillies that begins on Tuesday.

Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi will get the starting nod for Boston in those two interleague contests, as they will be matched up against RHPs Nick Pivetta and Vince Velazquez in that order.

First pitch of the first game is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET on Tuesday.

 

Chris Sale Named American League Pitcher of the Month for July.

As the four-game series opener between the Yankees and Red Sox is just about set to begin at Fenway Park on Thursday night, it was recently announced that Chris Sale was named the Pitcher of the Month in the American League for the second straight time.

The Red Sox were unbeaten in Sale’s four July starts, all while the lefty surrendered one lone run in 25 innings pitched to go along with 43 strikeouts and a mere .178 batting average against.

Currently on the 10-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation, it is unfortunate that Sale will be unable to make what was his scheduled start against New York tonight.

Fortunately, the Florida native seems confident that he will be able to make his next start against the Toronto Blue Jays sometime next week.

On the season as a whole, Sale owns an 11-4 record, a 2.04 ERA, and 207 total punch outs in 141 innings pitched.

Zack Greinke of the Arizona Diamondbacks received the same honor on the National League side after posting a 1.60 ERA in five July starts.

RECAP: Mookie Betts Comes Through with Monumental Home Run to Send #RedSox Home with 4-3 Win over Twins in Extras.

Truth be told, I did not have a ton of time to write up this recap of last night’s game, so I’m going to keep it as quick as possible with my three stars of the night and some other notes from this win.

Third Star: Chris Sale

6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K. 100 pitches (69 nice strikes), extended his scoreless innings streak to 23, picked up his 200th strikeout of 2018 in record-breaking fashion, and lowered his ERA on the season to 2.04.

 

 

 

 

 

Second Star: Rafael Devers

0/3 heading into the bottom half of the ninth, minutes after the Twins had taken a 3-2 lead off of Craig Kimbrel.

Facing off against Minnesota’s closer Fernando Rodney, crushes a 2-1 94 MPH fastball into the Red Sox bullpen to send this game into extras. 112.1 MPH off the bat on his 15th big fly of the season.

First Star: Mookie Betts

Who else? First at bat of the bottom of the tenth. Second pitch of the at bat. Launches a 89 MPH fastball off of Twins reliever Matt Belisle to send everyone at Fenway home happy with the 4-3 win.

Honorable Mentions: Jackie Bradley Jr. & Steve Pearce

Jackie Bradley Jr. put the Red Sox on the board in the fifth with his eighth home run of the season, good for two runs.

Steve Pearce, after a defensive miscue in the seventh, redeemed himself a few minutes later by starting and finishing an inning ending 3-6-3 double play.

All and all, with the 4-3 win on Friday, the Red Sox avoided their first three game losing streak since the end of April. The bullpen certainly was not great for the second night in a row, but the team was able to come through regardless.

At 72-33 on the year now, Boston now holds a five game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East thanks to their game against the Royals getting rained out yesterday.

Looking to even up the season series at three games a piece, Rick Porcello takes the hill for the Red Sox later tonight. He’ll be matched up against another righty in the Twins’ Jake Odorizzi, a pitcher Boston should be familiar with given the five seasons he spent with the Tampa Bay Rays.

First pitch of the third game of the series is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET on Saturday.

RECAP: Another Stellar Outing from Chris Sale Leads #RedSox to 70th Win.

Originally scheduled for 1:10 PM ET, the Sunday series finale between the Red Sox and Tigers did not get underway until about 2:45 in the afternoon. Luckily for us, Chris Sale still put on a show against an opponent he is seen plenty of times over his nine-year career.

In his 21st start of the season on Sunday, Sale, as he has done so often recently, dominated.

Tossing six full innings, the lefty held Detroit scoreless while scattering two hits, hitting one batter, and punching out nine, which is actually his lowest strikeout total since June 13th. Regardless, he still tossed a gem and was rarely put in any stressful situations.

Finishing with 99 pitches (73 strikes), Sale retired the first eight batters he faced in order. It was not until, with two outs in the third, Tigers left fielder Victor Reyes lined a single to left field for his teams first hit of the day.

The only other hit Detroit could come across with the Florida native on the mound came an inning later, when with one out, Nick Castellanos ripped a double to right center field, nearly got tagged out by Xander Bogaerts while heading to second base, but made it just in time to put a runner in scoring position.

Thankfully, Sale recovered by retiring the next two hitters he faced to strand the runner at second, although he did need 17 pitches to do so.

Out of those aforementioned 99 pitches, Sale relied on his four-seam fastball/slider combination approximately 85% of the time in the six innings he appeared in, which resulted in 17 total swinging strikes. The fastest Sale’s four-seamer was clocked in at was 98.6 MPH on his 58th pitch of the game.

Improving to 11-4 on the season now, Sale will look to build on yet another successful outing and win in his next time out, which should come against the Minnesota Twins back at home on Friday.

In relief of Sale, the Red Sox bullpen had a comfortable nine run lead to work with going into the bottom half of the seventh inning.

Making his first appearance since the All-Star break, Brandon Workman ended the shutout by serving up a solo homer to Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario in the lone frame he appeared in.

Joe Kelly got the call for the eighth inning with the chance to get some of his confidence back. Despite loading the bases, the Tigers failed to score a run off the hard throwing righty, as Jackie Bradley Jr. ran down a deep fly ball off the bat of Candelario for the third and final out to retire the side. Not the prettiest outing from Kelly, as he only threw strikes 48% of the time, but a scoreless one nonetheless.

The bottom half of the ninth was a completely different story for the Red Sox. With Tyler Thornburg pitching less than 24 hours after getting shelled, the righty reliever needed just seven pitches, all of which were strikes, to retire the only three batters he faced to close out the 9-0 win. They mentioned on the broadcast that Thornburg had said he is feeling more and more like himself on the mound, and what he did today certainly helped that cause.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against the second lefty they had seen in three days. Blaine Hardy, 31, has seen time as both a starter and a reliever with the Tigers this season, and had already made a start against Boston back on June 6th, a start in which he gave up five runs in six innings pitched.

That would not be the case on Sunday though, as the Tigers starter only pitched into the fourth inning before getting that hook.

Over those 3+ frames, the Red Sox tacked on their first two runs of the day on back-to-back RBI groundouts from Rafael Devers and Eduardo Nunez in the second.

Two innings later, leadoff hits from Steve Pearce and Xander Bogaerts, followed by Rafael Devers reaching first on a fielder’s choice meant that the bases were loaded for Eduardo Nunez.

After Hardy was replaced by Tigers reliever Drew VerHagen, Nunez grounded an RBI single that scored Steve Pearce from third. As the ball deflected off the third baseman’s glove however, some confusion was created and Rafael Devers ended up getting tagged out in between second and third.

With one out in the fourth now and runners on the corners, Jackie Bradley Jr. came through with his second hit of the day, a 390 foot three-run opposite field blast hit to left field for his seventh of the season. 6-0 game.

Fast forward to the seventh, and Andrew Benintendi picked up his only hit of the day on a one out, two RBI triple off of Tigers pitcher Daniel Stumpf to score both Sandy Leon and Mookie Betts to make it a 8-0 game.

One pitching change later, JD Martinez drove in Benintendi from third in the process of picking up his 81st RBI of the season on a sac fly to right field. Ninth and final run on the board, and that turned out to be more than enough for the Red Sox to pick up their league leading 70th win of the year.

Some notes from this win:

Over his last five starts, Chris Sale is 5-0 with a 0.23 ERA and 0.55 WHIP in 40 innings pitched. Also important to note:

In 13 games with the Red Sox, Steve Pearce owns an OPS of 1.099.

Jackie Bradley Jr. is slashing .265/.327/.469 with one home run and 12 RBI in 14 games this month.

—

Improving to 26-6 in series finales on the season, the Red Sox will head to Baltimore to wrap up this quick six-game road trip. Going up against a dismal 28-72 Orioles team, Rick Porcello will get the start for the series opener on Monday.

He’ll be matched up against fellow righty Kevin Gausman for Baltimore, who surrendered six runs on eight hits in his only other start against Boston this season back on May 17th.

First pitch of the first game is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET on Monday.

Recapping the All-Star Game from a #RedSox Perspective.

In what turned out to be a record-setting 8-6 win for the American League in last night’s MLB All-Star Game, I thought I would break down how the five Red Sox representatives contributed to the victory.

Chris Sale

Making his third consecutive start for the American League on Tuesday night, Sale was responsible for just the first inning of the 89th Midsummer Classic. Appearing in the bottom half of the first, the lefty surrendered a leadoff single to Cubs infielder Javy Baez on his very first pitch, then retired the last three batters, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and Freddie Freeman, on eight pitches, including this nasty 83 MPH slider to fan Goldschmidt for the second out.

Finishing with nine pitches (seven strikes), Sale did not factor into the decision, but he did electrify with a four-seam fastball that topped out at 100.7 MPH, which according to the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, is “the hardest tracked pitch velocity he’s had since 2010.”

Sale will look to build on a successful first half in his next scheduled start against the Tigers in Detroit on Sunday.

Mookie Betts & JD Martinez

The other two starters for Boston, Betts and Martinez had five at bats between them, and Martinez was the only one who managed a hit, as he ripped a two out single off of Max Scherzer in the first inning.

The dynamic duo also struck out three times while failing to drive in a run, so they really did nothing for themselves in terms of making a case for the game’s MVP.

Mitch Moreland

A pleasant surprise, Moreland entered this game in the sixth inning as a defensive replacement for White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu.

A first time All-Star, Moreland struck out in his first at bat against Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez in the seventh, but followed that up by singling in his next two at bats while seeing the win for the American League through until the end.

Looking at the final box score, no one on either roster had more hits than Moreland, so congrats to him on that.

Craig Kimbrel

Per Kimbrel himself, he was not available to pitch last night after the workload he has had recently. Makes sense.

After the American League took home an 8-6 win in 10 innings, former Red Sox draft pick and current Astros third baseman Alex Bregman was named the game’s Most Valuable Player thanks to his go-ahead home run in that 10th and final frame.

—

Having the next two days off, the Red Sox will be back at it once again this weekend, as they head to Detroit to take on a 41-57 Tigers team. David Price gets the nod against his former team in the series opener. He’ll be matched up against another lefty in the Tigers’ Matthew Boyd. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.

Chris Sale Named All-Star Game Starting Pitcher for Third Consecutive Year.

For the third straight season, Red Sox ace Chris Sale will get the nod for the American League in this year’s All-Star Game in Washington D.C.

Going up against Max Scherzer, Sale becomes the first Red Sox pitcher to start in multiple All-Star Games.

The last time a pitcher started in as many as three consecutive All-Star Games came when Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies did it from 1953-1955.

In exactly 20 starts this season, Sale owns a 2.23 ERA and 2.17 FIP to go along with 188 strikeouts in 129 innings pitched.

On the flip side, representing the host Washington Nationals, Max Scherzer will make his sixth appearance in an All-Star Game. At the age of 33, Scherzer has been as dominant as ever, as he has punched out 182 batters in 134.2 innings pitched this season.

First pitch of the 2018 All-Star Game is scheduled for 8:00 PM on FOX.

RECAP: Chris Sale Strikes out 12 and Dominates as #RedSox Sweep Rangers for Ninth Straight Win.

Entering Wednesday night with a 3.5 game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East, the Red Sox were in search of their ninth straight win and third consecutive series sweep since departing from the Bronx on July 1st. Having already manhandled the Washington Nationals and Kansas City Royals, the Texas Rangers were up next for Boston, and they did not back down in the series finale yesterday.

Making his 20th start of the season on Wednesday, which also happened to be the 200th start of his career, Chris Sale stayed red-hot in what turned out to be his 10th winning decision of the year.

Tossing seven scoreless innings last night, Sale held the Rangers to just six hits and one walk over that span while fanning 12, marking his fifth straight outing with at least 11 K’s.

Despite only having one frame in which he faced the minimum three batters, the lanky lefty’s dominance was fully on display against a team he has already shined against this season.

Besides the dozen punch-outs, what had to be most impressive about Sale’s night was the defensive clinic he put on in the sixth. After back-to-back hits from Elvis Andrus and Nomar Mazara put runners on second and third with no outs, the Florida native bounced back by striking out Adrian Beltre on five pitches, then got Rougned Odor to ground into an inning ending double play, started by none other than the ace himself to retire the side.

To cap off a stellar performance on the mound, Sale struck out the final three batters he faced in the seventh after giving up a leadoff infield single to Jurickson Profar.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 110 (80 strikes), the 29-year-old hurler went to both his four-seam fastball and deadly slider a combined 79% of the time on Wednesday, which in total, resulted in 19 swinging strikes. Out of 44 four-seamers thrown, Sale topped out at 99.7 MPH in the fifth inning, while also being responsible for seven of the 10 fastest thrown pitches all night.

As previously mentioned, Sale picked up his 10th victory of 2018 in what will be his final start before the All-Star Break. To wrap up his first half, let’s take a look at the numbers from Sale’s last seven outings via @SoxNotes:

I know I usually include this information in the end of the blog, but this was too good not to share now.

Given this recent stretch of dominance from the left hander, we’ll have to wait and see if Sale gets the nod for the American League in what would be his third straight start in the All-Star Game.

In relief of Sale, Heath Hembree got the first call out of the Red Sox bullpen to start the top half of the eighth.

After striking out Ronald Guzman to lead off the inning, Elvis Andrus ripped a single to right field off the South Carolina native, and thanks to a stolen base and a wild pitch, the Rangers shortstop was able to advance to third base.

He would come in to score on a Nomar Mazara RBI single, ending the shutout and putting additional pressure on Hembree, who would later depart following a walk to load the bases with two outs in the frame.

With their lead cut to three now, Alex Cora turned to closer Craig Kimbrel for the rare four-out save opportunity. Kimbrel, who had not appeared in a game since Sunday, did walk in the second run of the inning for Texas, but escaped any further damage by striking out Joey Gallo on six pitches to finally get out of the jam.

An inning later, Kimbrel, pitching in a situation I would assume he is much more comfortable in, tossed a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out all three batters he faced to secure his 28th save and his teams 65th win of the season as well.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup was matched up against the ageless wonder, Bartolo Colon for the Rangers. Colon, 45, surrendered four runs in seven innings against Boston in his only other start against them this season back on May 4th in Arlington.

Speaking of four runs, that’s exactly how many runs the Red Sox scored off of Colin last night, too.

Starting in the bottom half of the second, a leadoff single off the bat of Xander Bogaerts, followed by an awry pick-off attempt that allowed the shortstop to move up to second, put a runner in scoring position right away for the bottom half of the Red Sox lineup.

Two batters later, in what looked to be a routine pop fly from Eduardo Nunez, turned out to be so much more, as no one in the Rangers outfield could come up with the ball, which allowed Bogaerts to easily score from second, putting the first run of the night on the board.

Fast forward all the way to the fifth inning now, two straight one out hits from Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi off of Colon put the Red Sox in a prime spot to tack on some more runs, and thanks to JD Martinez, that’s exactly what happened.

In a 2-0 hitter’s count, Martinez took a 88 MPH fastball from Colon and pulled it down the third base line into the left field corner, allowing both Betts and Benintendi to score for his 78th and 79th RBI of the season.

Two batters after that, Xander Bogaerts struck once again, as he drove in Martinez from second on a RBI triple, his second of the season in as many days. With the score at 4-0 in favor of the Red Sox at this point in Wednesday’s contest, they would not have to look back en route to another sweep.

Some notes from this win:

Another one from @SoxNotes: This is the first time since 1948 the Red Sox have had multiple winning streaks of 9+ games in a single season.

The last time Chris Sale did not record 10+ K in a start came on June 13th against the Orioles in Baltimore. Since then, his K/9 is an outrageous 15.6.

Sadly, Andrew Benintendi finished second behind only the Mariners’ Jean Segura for the final spot on the AL All-Star roster.

—

On a more positive note, the Red Sox will be looking for their TENTH straight win tonight, as they welcome in the below average Toronto Blue Jays into town for a four-game set.

Struggling in his last two starts against the Yankees and Royals, David Price will be in search of some retribution against a former club of his in the Blue Jays.

At 42-49, Toronto has certainly been an underwhelming team this season, so hopefully they will present the opportunity for Price to head into the All-Star Break on encouraging terms.

He’ll be matched up against fellow lefty and 2018 All-Star JA Happ for Toronto, who held the Red Sox to one run in the seven innings he pitched against them on April 24th.

First pitch of the first game of the last series before the All-Star Break is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET.

RECAP: Mookie Betts Hits 100th Career Homer and Chris Sale Picks up 100th Career Victory as #RedSox Open Series in Kansas City with 10-5 Win.

Coming off an off day on Thursday, the Red Sox took to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, MO to take on the 25-61 Royals. Having already taken two out of three from them earlier this season at Fenway Park, the Red Sox, led by Chris Sale, were looking to end a nine game road trip on a positive note.

Making his 19th start of the season on Friday, Sale carried over the dominance he displayed throughout the month of June in another great showing. In what was his shortest start since June 13th, the lefty went six innings deep in this one, surrendering just one run on five hits and one walk while fanning 12 Royals on the night.

By the time Sale took the mound for the first time in the bottom half of the first, his team had already gotten him four runs of support. And an inning later, that lead inflated all the way up to eight runs. So, the 29 year-old was never under much duress on Friday night, and the Royals only got to him once, on a Alcides Escobar RBI single, in the second, in six frames of work.

Finishing with a final pitch count of 99 (65 strikes), Sale displayed his full range of abilities with a fine defensive play in his final inning.

Out of those 99 pitches, the Florida native went to his nasty slider 43 times, which resulted in nine swinging strikes and 10 called strikes. He also topped out at 100.3 MPH with his four-seam fastball in the second inning.

A performance worthy of his ninth winning decision of the season, Sale reached a milestone with his 100th career win as well. He’ll look to build on this start, and make even more of a case to get his third consecutive nod for the AL in the All-Star Game, in his next time out, which should come against the Texas Rangers back at home on Wednesday.

In relief of Sale, we got our first look at Tyler Thornburg in a Red Sox uniform, and in case you were not able to catch it, I can confirm that he is a real person.

Making his first appearance with the club since being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers prior to the 2017 season, Thornburg gave up one run in the lone inning he pitched in the seventh. Granted, a Lucas Duda leadoff triple probably should have been a leadoff double had Mookie Betts not misplayed the ball in right field, but other than that, it certainly was not the worst relief appearance these eyes have seen.

From that point on, Brandon Workman gave up a two-run home run to Mike Moustakas in the eighth, and Hector Velazquez gave up one run on a Whit Merrifield RBI single in the ninth to make it a 10-5 game, while also picking up the final out to ensure his teams 60th win of the season.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup got to Royals starter Jason Hammel right away in this one. In his only other start against Boston this season, Hammel surrendered eight runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings pitched back on April 30th. On Friday night, the righty got hit hard once again, but did not make it into the fifth inning.

Leading the night off as he typically does, Mookie Betts took the third pitch he saw from Hammel and launched it 410 feet to left center for his 22nd long ball of the season.

In the process of doing that, not only did Betts put his team on the board first, but that homer was also good for the 100th of the outfielder’s career.

Four batters later, Brock Holt came to the plate with the bases loaded, and he took advantage of that by ripping an RBI single to right field to score JD Martinez from third and Steve Pearce from second.

Another two batters later, Sandy Leon put the exclamation point on an exciting opening frame by lining an RBI single of his own to right, scoring Xander Bogaerts from third for his teams fourth run of the night already.

In the second, with Hammel still on the mound for Kansas City, a pair of two-run home runs off the bats of JD Martinez (27) and Xander Bogaerts (14) doubled the Red Sox lead to eight heading into the bottom half of the inning.

Fast forward all the way to the eighth, and Jackie Bradley Jr. collected his 26th RBI of the season to score Eduardo Nunez from third for the ninth run of the night. An inning later, Steve Pearce capped off his three-hit with an RBI double to score Blake Swihart and put his new teams 10th and final run on the board.

Some notes from this win:

From @SoxNotes: Chris Sale is in line to earn the 100th win of his career. In his last 6 starts, he has a 1.10 ERA. He has not allowed a HR in his last 44.0 innings, the longest streak of his career.

And

Players to hit 100 HR with the Red Sox before turning 26: Tony Conigliaro – 160 Jim Rice – 133 Ted Williams – 127 Mookie Betts – 100 (turns 26 on Oct. 7)

It is July 7th, JD Martinez is slashing .328/.392/.647 with 27 HR and 73 RBI. The Red Sox are also the only team in all of baseball with 60 wins.

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Looking to rebound from an ugly outing against the Yankees last Sunday, David Price will get the ball for the middle game of this weekend series later tonight. He’ll be matched up against Royals righty Brad Keller, who initially started the season as a reliever, but has since transitioned into a starting role with the club. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM ET on FOX.

 

RECAP: Rafael Devers Sets Tone Early and Chris Sale Fans 11 as #RedSox Shut out Yankees.

Coming off a game in which they were held to just one run by CC Sabathia and the Yankees pitching staff, the Red Sox made sure that was not the case on Saturday night. With Chris Sale on the mound though, they didn’t need much to pick up a series-evening win.

Making his 18th start of the season last night, Chris Sale wrapped up his stellar month of June with yet another superb performance against a team he has a solid track record against.

Going into what was his 14th career start against the Yankees, Sale owned a 1.73 ERA in 93.2 innings against New York over nine seasons, including one outing this season in which he allowed one run in just six innings pitched back on April 10th.

Right from the get go, it was clear that Sale meant business in a decently important game. And given the fact he had a four run lead to work with before he even took the mound, the lefty was not put in all that many stressful spots on Saturday.

In a full seven innings pitched, Sale held the Yankees to just three total baserunners on one hit, one walk, and one HBP while recording a healthy 11 strikeouts on the evening.

What was most impressive about the Florida native’s night would have to be his sixth frame of work, in which he struck out the side on 20 pitches, the most he threw in an inning. Can’t forget to mention the help he got from Jackie Bradley Jr. in the bottom half of the third as well.

Retiring the last 16 batters he faced, Sale finished with a final pitch count of 101 (72 strikes) after ending the seventh. Topping out at 100 MPH in that seventh inning, the 29-year-old hurler went to his four-seam fastball 36% of the time on Saturday.

A performance certainly worthy of a win, Sale improved to 8-4 on the season last night. He’ll look to build on a successful June in his next time out, which should come against the lowly Kansas City Royals on Friday.

In relief of Sale, Alex Cora turned to two relievers out of the Red Sox bullpen for what was essentially mop-up duty in a blowout game. First, Heath Hembree tossed a scoreless eighth inning, then Hector Velazquez tossed a scoreless ninth to wrap this thing up.

On the other side of things, the Red Sox lineup made people forget about their one run clunker on Friday night very quickly.

Facing off against a pitcher who has struggled against Boston in the past in Sonny Gray, Rafael Devers got the scoring started right away in the first.

After recording the first two outs of the inning, Gray allowed the next three batters he faced to reach base on two singles and a walk. That set up an ideal scoring situation for Devers, and he capitalized on it.

Mookie’s reaction:

That grand slam was the first from the Red Sox since April 30th. With that slam, Devers became the youngest player in the history of Red Sox vs. Yankees matchups to go yard in that fashion.

An inning later, a leadoff double from Sandy Leon followed by a Mookie Betts walk set up another great scoring spot, this time for Andrew Benintendi. On the third pitch of his at bat, Benintendi ripped a single to right field to score Leon from Second and collect his 53rd RBI of the year.

Speaking of RBI, JD Martinez had three of them on Saturday, and he picked up his first in the second when a 322 foot sacrifice fly to right field scored Betts from third and put the Red Sox up by six runs early.

Fast forward all the way to the sixth now, with Gray well out of this game, and Martinez struck again. This time on an RBI single to score Jackie Bradley Jr. from second.

In the seventh, after Rafael Devers lined a one out double off of Yankees reliever Giovanny Gallegos, Sandy Leon blasted is his second home run is as many starts 388 feet into the right field seats.

From that point on, JD Martinez notched his 3rd RBI of the night in the eighth, and Brock Holt picked up one in the ninth on a pinch-hit RBI single to score his teams 11th and final run of the game. Not like it was needed, but it was still nice to see that production come from the bottom of the lineup after a quiet night on Friday.

Some notes from this win:

Alex Cora on the big win, “”The guys came out with an attitude today. It was fun to watch. There was something different with this group today.”

From @SoxNotes: Chris Sale has a 1.03 ERA in his last 5 starts. Among the 500+ pitchers who have made at least 10 starts vs. NYY in the Live Ball Era (1920-pres.), Sale owns the lowest career ERA (1.61) against the Yankees, as well as the highest SO/9.0 IP ratio (11.62).

With his five-hit performance at the plate on Saturday, Rafael Devers raised his batting average by 12 points, his OBP by 10 points, and his SLG by 22 points.

Entering July, JD Martinez leads all of baseball in HR (25) and RBI (67).

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In this first day of July, the finale of this Red Sox-Yankees series will receive plenty of attention via Sunday Night Baseball. For David Price, this particular start looms large. A career 4.27 ERA in 19 starts at Yankee Stadium, the lefty will have plenty to prove in what should be a playoff atmosphere in the Bronx tonight.

He’ll be matched up against the best pitcher on this Yankees staff in Luis Severino. New York specifically moved their rotation so Severino would start tonight’s contest, so you know it means a lot for them as well.

First pitch of the final game is scheduled for 8:05 PM ET on ESPN.