McAdam: With Chris Sale gone for the year, reality begins to set in

On Monday, the reaction was mostly relief. If you had happened by Fenway Park mid-afternoon, you likely would have heard a collective exhale by everyone inside.

The news on Chris Sale was, as these things go, as good as could be expected. No, he wouldn't need Tommy John surgery that likely would have sidelined him until the beginning of the 2021 season.

Sale was found to have inflammation in his left elbow, with no structural damage to his ulnar collateral ligament.

"We'll get through this,'' said Sale. "It's not the end of the world. It could be worse; that's my mindset.''

The flip side, however, is that Sale won't be re-examined by Dr. James Andrews for another six weeks, which just about lines up with the end of the regular season. He might yet throw off a mound sometime before they turn out the lights at Fenway this fall, but he's thrown his last pitch in a game setting.

Purely by happenstance, Tuesday night was supposed to represent Sale's next start. Instead, the Sox turned to Brian Johnson who got 11 outs before turning things over to the bullpen.

Even in the midst of his worst season to date, Sale would have represented a considerable upgrade. Inconsistent as he'd been this year, he had shown signs of figuring some things out of late, allowing just three earned runs in his last 14.2 innings to go along with 25 strikeouts and only two walks.

''(Sale's absence) is going to affect us every five days -- we know that,'' said Alex Cora, before the Red Sox dropped a 3-2 decision to the Philadelphia Phillies. "Losing a talent like him is tough. But we've got to move forward. That's the way we see it. He would hate us to say, 'Oh, we're done because he's not pitching.' That's not the case with us. We know where we're at and we know what we have to do.

"The schedule (with several off-days) will help us the next couple of weeks and then we'll see what we're dealing with in September.''

In the meantime, the Sox will have to piece together some games the way they did Tuesday. When Johnson got to 67 pitches with two outs in the fourth, it was up to the bullpen to hold things together.

Five Red Sox relievers combined to contribute 5.1 nearly perfect innings. The Phils didn't score again after Johnson left and allowed only three baserunners the rest of the way, the result of an infield single, a walk and a wild pitch/strikeout.

That's been part of the pattern of late. Over the last five games, Red Sox relievers have an 0.39 ERA, allowing just one earned run in the last 23.1 innings while holding opposing hitters to a minuscule .138 batting average with one extra-base hit in the last 80 at-bats.

It's not just the last week, either. Going back almost a month, to June 24, Sox relievers have had a 2.77 ERA over the last 26 games.

And so, there's the irony: the bullpen, which was the team's weak spot in the first half of the season, has become a strength, in part because the starters have been doing their own job, consistently pitching deeper into games.

The emergence of lefties Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor (nine consecutive scoreless appearances since Aug. 6 and a tidy 1.74 ERA) has provided better balance, allowing Cora to match up better in the late innings and also taken some of the workload off the team's high-leverage relievers like Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman.

Even failed starter Andrew Cashner has managed to be of service in relief.

But nights like Tuesday can be a mirage. It's helped that the Sox have had two days off in the last five days, thus providing welcome opportunities for rest and recovery. Next week offers more of the same, with a day off after a weekend series in San Diego and yet another after a two-game set in Colorado.

After that, however, the schedule isn't quite as forgiving, and if the rotation, especially minus Sale, can't regularly pitch deep into games, it's going to be harder for Cora to cobble games together.

September holds the promise of expanded rosters, but any callups will provide quantity rather than quality. It's unlikely that anyone who gets added after Labor Day will be entrusted in big spots.

The potential return to good health for David Price this weekend offers the hope that another starter's spot will be filled with a capable arm.

But it's also worth noting that on a night like Tuesday, when the relievers were very nearly perfect, it still wasn't enough to get the Sox a win.

And that, as much as anything, symbolizes exactly how quixotic this longshot playoff chase appears.