He Cannot Be Serious!

Ahhh, there's nothing like a baseball column from Shank after a huge Opening Day loss, is there (emphasis added)?

SEATTLE — What’s up with Chris Sale? Is that cranky left shoulder really OK?

I promise not to overreact. This is not 30 years ago when it was OK for the Boston Herald to declare “Wait ‘Til Next Year” when the Red Sox lost on Opening Day. The Sox dropped their opener in St. Pete last spring and it did not prevent them from winning 118 games and their fourth World Series of this century.

You know that part's bullshit - he'll say something like 'not gonna overreact', then proceeds to write a few paragraphs where he does just that.

But again, we must ask . . . what’s up with Chris Sale?

Less than a week after signing a five-year, $145 million contract extension, Sale submitted the worst start of his Red Sox career in a 12-4 Opening Day loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. In three innings on Thursday, Sale surrendered seven runs on six hits, two walks and one hit batsman. He gave up three homers, two to Mariner shortstop Tim Beckham. (Sale allowed only two homers in his final 83 regular-season innings last year.) Sale threw 30 fastballs and did not induce a single swing-and-miss. His average speed on 25 four-seamers was 92.3 miles per hour. Trailing, 7-2, after three, Sale did not come out for the fourth.

So here we have one game where Chris Sale pitched poorly and Shank practically makes a Federal case out of it. Isn't that the very definition of 'overreacting'?

Not to pile on (riiiight! - ed), but it has to be pointed out that this stinkbomb comes on the heels of an August-September-October in which Sale was treated like a Faberge Egg due to a sore shoulder. Sale pitched only 17 regular-season innings after July 27. In the postseason, he pitched 15.1 innings over 14 games. He has not pitched more than 5.1 innings in any game since July 27. He’s about to turn 30 and the Sox he will be paying him $30 million in each of the next three seasons.

After the beatdown, Sale and manager Alex Cora both insisted there is no physical issue with Sale.

From there, Shank laments the departure of Jon Lester (from nearly five years ago) and we also get a Woodstock reference. That leaves us a Larry Bird sighting and a few 'sons of Alex Cora' clichés away from a full-blown overreaction from Shank.

UPDATE AT 11:15 AM - Looks like we weren't far off the mark with this column, were we?

Everyone is already overreacting to Gane 1 of 162. Nothing like fake Sox drama in late March.

— Boston Radio Watch® (@bostonradio) March 29, 2019