Chris Sale calms fears with strong start (8 Ks in 5.1 innings), first postseason win

If you polled Red Sox Nation what their biggest worry was before Game 1 of the AL Division Series, the health and effectiveness of ace Chris Sale would have been the runaway winner.

If Sale came out against the Yankees and wasn't effective, there's no way the Red Sox would be able to mount a strong postseason run. They had to have their ace, or at least a reasonable facsimile of him.

After his performance Friday, consider those fears alleviated (we'll get to the bullpen ... the new runaway leader).

Sale might not have had his best stuff in the eventual 5-4 victory over the Yankees, but we now know this: Sale has enough to shut down baseball's best lineups.

"I thought he was good," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. "You know, not his dominant self necessarily, but I thought he did a really nice job of mixing his pitches, changing speeds. His change-up, slider were a factor. He could reach back for a little bit on the heater when he really needed to. So I think he gave them a strong outing, no doubt about it. And did a good job I think of keeping us off balance enough.

"We were able to get his pitch count up and get him out of there, and then keep crawling back into it. But overall I thought he pitched pretty effective against us."

It took all of about five minutes for Sale to stake his claim of the Fenway sod, as he struck out Andrew McCutchen, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton — while averaging 95 on his fastball (a far cry from the 89-90 he threw in his last regular-season start) — to excite the Faithful.

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"Early in the season, he wasn't throwing 99. He was throwing 95, 96," said Alex Cora. "He pitched well. Tonight from the get-go, after McCutchen, he was very aggressive in the strike zone, you could see good extension. Repeating his delivery. Breaking ball was good, changeup was good."

For all the fretting about Sale's fastball, his off-speed stuff was lethal. Of the 15 outs Sale record (one was a double-play ball to end the second), 10 came from off-speed pitches. Eight came via his slider — which was especially effective backdoor against righties — and two with his changeup. Sale got three outs from his two-seam fastball, and two from the four-seam variety that both hit 96 on the gun.

"That's part of the game: changing speeds and eye levels, in and out, up and down, hard and soft," said Sale. "So my game plan has been the same since the day I got here.

"I felt more like myself because I felt like this was just a normal start. Not normal in terms of not being a postseason start, but just like there's no restrictions. There's no going out to the bullpen after my start to add pitches. I knew I was going to get my 100-plus pitches or somewhere around there. That's a very freeing feeling. And also being here pitching at Fenway, that was awesome. This was obviously my first postseason start here at Fenway. That's something I'll never forget. That was incredible. Three runs on the board after your first inning doesn't hurt either."

Three times the Yankees were able to get the lead-off batter on against Sale (second, fourth and sixth innings). But he never let New York get any momentum. He struck out the next batter the first two times it happened, and he was able to get a fielder's choice in the sixth before a one-single by Stanton knocked Sale from the game (thanks to the dumpster fire of a bullpen, both runners came in to score and were charged to Sale).

"If he didn't take the ball out of my hand, I would have kept throwing," Sale said. "There's no holding back. They want me to throw 150, I'm throwing 150. If they ask me to throw tomorrow, I'll throw tomorrow. I think that's the mindset for every person in this clubhouse. Up and down the lineup and pitching staff, we are fully prepped for everything thrown our way. We're not going to shy away from it."

For the game, Sale's fastballs averaged 95.02, 95.13, 94.6, 93.6, 89.9 (only one) and 94.4 in each of his six innings. Probably the best news? His final four fastballs averaged 95.2 — same as the first inning.

Sale, who lost his only other previous postseason starts last year in the Division Series to Houston (0-2, 8.38 ERA) said that a chat with Cora recently got him in the right mindset and set the stage for him to earn his first career playoff start.

"AC said something to me the other night that really stuck, that was, 'Win the first pitch and then win every pitch after that,'" Sale recalled. "I threw every pitch tonight like he was going to take the ball out of my hand after the pitch I threw. You have to go up there and do what you have to do to get a win."

It wasn't the way anyone drew it up, but they'll take it. And, at least when it comes to Sale's health in the postseason, Red Sox Nation can breathe a little easier.

"I think giving Chris that lead, being able to let him settle in and go out there and pitch, I think definitely just helped relax everybody," said J.D. Martinez.