June 3, 2023

Sale To IL With Left Shoulder Inflammation, Extent Of Injury Unclear

The exact status of Chris Sale's injured left shoulder will likely remain unknown into next week.

Sale was placed on the 15-day injured list today, after leaving Thursday's game against the Reds in the fourth inning, with what the Red Sox called "left shoulder inflammation". Sale stressed that his elbow feels fine and he does not anticipate needing surgery for this injury.

It's different than that [shoulder injury in 2018], I would say in a better way than that. . . . This isn't anything that's going to require any procedure, I don't think . . . It's just . . . going to take time. . . . I can't really get too definitive because I don't have anything too definitive. . . .
I hate feeling like this. I started having fun playing baseball again, and now I'm back to not having fun. . . . I felt like I was over the hump, I really did. I felt like I was back to being myself. So when something like this happens, it's deflating.

Sale said he has "a couple more tests I have to go through until we can get a definitive answer", which should come "within the next week". A time frame of five-to-seven days was mentioned.

It was Sale's 11th start of the season, which is the same number of regular season starts he was able to make in the previous three seasons combined (0-9-2). Sale described how he felt on the mound:

First inning was great [his fastball hit 96]. Second inning was kind of when it started happening. Third inning was not very good. And then that fourth inning, that was the one that did it in. . . . I kind of felt it on one pitch, and then after that it just slowly kept creeping up. . . . I couldn't finish pitches. I was raring back for 91. That's just not it [for me], ever.

After a rocky start to the season, Sale had been pitching well, with a 2.23 ERA in his last five starts coming into the game against the Reds. His ERA for his first five starts of the year was 8.22.

Last night's game against the Rays (40-18) at Fenway was rained out. The two teams are playing a doubleheader today (that was pre-planned). Friday's game has been rescheduled for Monday, which had been an off-day. After that, the Red Sox (29-27 at the moment) go to Cleveland and the Bronx for three games each against the Guardians and MFY.

**

Horrible news from the Globe. George Scott III, the son of former Red Sox first baseman George Scott, apparently killed his eight-year-old son, Dante Hazard, before committing suicide yesterday in his New Bedford home. He was 54. Law enforcement officials investigating the disappearance in March 2019 of Lisa Hazard, the boy's mother, had searched the house two or three weeks ago. There is no information on whether the search was connected to the murder-suicide.

George Scott was with the Red Sox for two stints: 1966-71 and 1977-79. The Boomer passed away in 2013.

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