How worried should the Red Sox be about Chris Sale's 0-3 start?
Opening Day at Fenway Park began with the good vibes of the World Series ring ceremony, a final celebration of perhaps the greatest team in Boston Red Sox history.
Past Red Sox heroes such as David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell brought out the team's four World Series trophies from 2004 onward Tuesday to the sounds of the Boston Pops orchestra playing "We are the Champions." Giant banners honoring the 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 World Series winners were unfurled one at a time over the Green Monster. The players were given their World Series rings featuring 185 total stones -- the sum of 162 regular-season games, 14 postseason games and Boston's ninth title -- that included 14 princess-cut diamonds, 21 custom-cut rubies, 22 blue sapphires and 15 total carats of gems. The championship flag was raised in center field and two dozen members of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots walked in from left field carrying all their trophies, and Stephon Gilmore, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski threw out the first pitches.new nike nfl jerseys for sale cheap
Then Chris Sale took the mound and 76 pitches later, Red Sox fans were reminded that all those 2018 memories are now stored in the medial temporal lobes of their brains and that it's a new season and everyone's anxiety level about Sale's effectiveness increased a little bit more.
Sale pitched four innings against the Blue Jays in a 7-5 loss, giving up five runs and seven hits while recording three strikeouts -- which at least was an improvement over the one strikeout the left-hander had in six innings in his previous start at Oakland (although he allowed just three hits and one run that game).
Fresh off his recent five-year, $145 million contract extension, Sale is now 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA through three starts. He says he feels fine and blamed this loss on his performance.cheap wholesale nike nfl jerseys
"We gotta win that game," the 30-year-old said. "It's very easy to just throw it on top of the pile and say we're not playing good, but this wasn't about us not playing good. Today was a day we were going to turn it around, we're back home, the ceremony, in front of our home fans, playing our first home game."
While there were apparently extenuating circumstances in the Oakland start, when his fastball averaged just 89.1 mph -- Red Sox manager Alex Cora revealed before Tuesday's game that Sale had been pretty sick that outing and "spent a lot of time in the bathroom" -- there was hope a better Sale would show up at Fenway.
