In Chris Sale's 10-year major league career, former teammate A.J. Pierzynski caught him more times (83) than any other catcher except one (Tyler Flowers with 90), though virtually every game Pierzynski caught was in a relief role. By the time Sale moved into the rotation in 2012, Pierzynski had left the Chicago White Sox.
Still, there's a lot of familiarity there. Pierzynski, who now works as an analyst for Fox Sports, continues to watch most of Sale's starts from his home in central Florida and was in the broadcast booth last Saturday when Sale was cuffed around by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
We figured Pierzynski, who had a three-month stay with the Red Sox in 2014, was the perfect person to speak to about Sale's struggles this season.
"He's a buddy of mine and I want him to do well, so obviously, I watch him probably more than I do other people because of that,'' said Pierzynski. "I watch a lot of his starts and where he's at and what he's doing. His stuff has been there. It's still electric with movement. But (until Thursday's win over Toronto), there was something not right. You can't put your finger on it.
"The only thing you can come up with -- and I kind of said this on the air last weekend -- was that he's always been 'effectively wild.' But when you watch him pitch this season, he's wild around the strike zone, whereas before, it was in the strike zone. Yes, you want him to throw strikes, but at the same time, you want him to throw the right kind of the strikes.
"In the past, if he wanted to miss away, it'd still be a strike. What I see now is hitters aren't having the same takes. When he misses, it's a ball out of his hand and when you watch hitters, they know that right away and they don't have to commit. And in the game against the Dodgers -- and I don't know if this was part of the scouting report or not -- but he threw zero pitches away from righthanded hitters.''
As Sale as himself noted, he's seldom had a good feel for his changeup this season and Pierzynski has noticed a reluctance to throw the change. When his slider isn't as effective, that leaves him with only his fastball to attack hitters.
On Thursday, Sale eased up some on his velocity with the goal of having better fastball command. For much of the year, he was yanking fastballs because he was overthrowing, and Pierzynski believes that's a byproduct of Sale's environment.
"All he hears all day long is, 'Where's your velocity? How come you don't throw as hard?' '' said the former catcher. "So what's your natural reaction to that? It's, 'Screw you, I'm going to show you that I can still throw hard.' And then he loses touch with his fastball command. If you're always reaching back to throw hard, you're obviously not going to have that same control.''
Pierzynski also believes that Sale may be a victim of his past success.
"He's set the bar so high,'' Pierzynski noted. "People think he should go out and win every time out and it just doesn't happen like that. He's going to be fine. But in today's world, it's all about overreaction and Chris puts more pressure on himself than anybody. He's a competitor. You've heard him say after games, 'I suck, I'm terrible, I'm embarrassing my family.' Well, after a while, you start believing that.
"He's never really struggled in the big leagues before. Yeah, he's had some falloff in the second-half at times, but he's never been through a stretch like this, so there's probably a little bit of him not understanding what's going on. But he'll get through it. He's too good and he works too hard.
One explanation that Pierzynski doesn't buy, however, is one which suggests that Sale is trying too hard as a way of justifying his contract extension.
"I hate that,'' said Pierzynski, dismissing that theory out of hand. "I get why people say that, but no, absolutely not. Him signing a contract, is there a little bit of, 'Oh, man, I have to prove I'm worth it?' A little bit, maybe. But at the same time, Chris doesn't care about that. He wants to win. I remember talking to him about the famous jersey-cutting in Chicago (when Sale took scissors to alternate uniform tops, claiming that he wasn't comfortable wearing them on the mound). He said, 'I just want to win; I don't care about the other stuff.'
"When he doesn't pitch up to his expectations, which are higher than anybody else's, he feels it because he genuinely cares. I think that gets lost. The only thing he cares about is going out and trying to win for the Boston Red Sox and his teammates, not because he signed a big extension."
Noting that Sale's history has included strong first halves followed by diminishing returns down the stretch because of fatigue, it's possible that this year could see a flip of that script.
"Normally, Chris is going to the All-Star Game and pitching (having started the previous three before this one),'' said Pierzynski. "But this year, he got those four days off and he got the chance to look back and figure some things out. This year, he had a below-average first half and he absolutely can take that as a positive, where he can say, 'I'm going to have my great first half in the second half this year and get this team back to the playoffs.'
"Maybe that start the other day (against Toronto) was a step in that direction .''
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