Chris Sale had had some time to reflect on his outing, so when Game 5 of the ALCS was complete, a lopsided 9-1 loss to the Houston Astros, the Red Sox lefty had already done the math.
"I was good for five (innings),'' concluded Sale, "and then I sucked for one.''
And while that may have been a tad over-simplistic, it was hard to argue the main point.
For the first five frames, Sale was indeed very good, having allowed just two hits. The fact that one of them was a solo homer by Yordan Alvarez to lead off the second, hardly was disastrous.
Sale's fastball was popping in the mid-90s, occasionally touching 98 mph, and he was consistently getting swing-and-misses from the Astros hitters. His control was sharp (one walk) and so, importantly, was his command. Through four innings, seven of his 12 outs were by strikeout, and when he fanned Carlos Correa and Kyle Tucker to end the fourth and strand runners at the corners, Sale let loose with a celebratory scream that could almost be heard over the din emanating from the stands.
Life was good. This was Chris Sale as fans remembered him.
"My mechanics, my rhythm...my tempo was a lot better,'' said Sale. "That's what I've been working on for the last few weeks now.''
Then came the sixth. A leadoff walk to Jose Altuve invited trouble. An error by Kyle Schwarber made things worse. A comebacker moved the runners to second and third, bringing Alvarez to the plate, with first base open.
Alvarez had homered off him in the second and lined a single to left in the fourth, both on fastballs. But despite the open base and Correa (two strikeouts vs. Sale) due next, Alex Cora said the Sox never considered walking Alvarez.
"No, no we didn't think about walking him there,'' said Cora. "We thought about making pitches. We were supposed to go up and he left it over the plate and he went the other way.''
Alvarez slashed a double to left, scoring both baserunners, and that was all for Sale. It was not, however, all for the scoring. With Ryan Brasier on in relief, a two-out dribbler extended the inning, followed by a run-scoring double from Yuli Gurriel and two-run single from Jose Siri.
That meant a five-run inning, with three of the runs charged to Sale.
"Our guy was great,'' insisted Cora, "and he threw the ball great. The stuff was really good. He was throwing 97 mph with a good slider.''
In fact, Sale was throwing so well that Cora never hesitated sending him back out for the sixth, despite the potential for the dreaded "third-time-through-the-order" factor.
"I understand how people think,'' said Cora of the decision to stay with him. "But there were two lefties coming up, too. He's Chris Sale.''
But the Chris Sale in the sixth wasn't as precise as the Chris Sale of the first five, and a few mis-located fastballs proved deadly.
Overall, it was a much better outing than his last three. He couldn't get out of the third in his final regular season start. He lasted just an inning in Game 2 of the Division Series with Tampa Bay. And while there were encouraging signs in the ALCS opener, he left 19 outs on the shoulders of the bullpen.
This was different. In fact, for most of the game, it was near-vintage Sale.
The sixth, however, left a lot to be desired. It's uncertain whether he got pushed too far -- he had a manageable 69 pitches through five -- or whether he just chose a bad time to struggle with his execution.
"I had to leave everything out there,'' he said, reflecting back. "I told myself coming into this game I had a job to do. Obviously, I didn't get it done. But I left my nuts out there on that mound tonight, that's for damn sure.''