SAN DIEGO — Chris Sale had only faced the San Diego Padres once in his 13-year career.
On June 1, 2014, a 25-year-old Sale, who would finish that season third in American League Cy Young voting, pitched a complete game, allowing just one run on two hits.
Nine years later, Sale wasn’t quite as dominant, but his seven-inning performance on Saturday, in which he held the Padres to two runs on three hits in a 4-2 victory for the Red Sox highlighted the impressive turnaround he has continued to make this season after three long years of injuries and setbacks.
Sale struck out eight and induced 16 swings-and-misses in a 111-pitch effort.
Saturday marked his ninth start of the season, surpassing the 50-inning mark for the year. In the previous three seasons combined, he pitched just 48 1/3 innings in the regular season.
“I feel like I’m trending in a good direction,” he said, cautious to be too optimistic given so many setbacks in recent years. “I’ve been around here too long to feel like I’m on top of a mountain at all and I’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
Six weeks don’t make a season, but it’s hard to argue Sale could have gotten off to a better start this year, even with a few bumpy outings in early April that inflated his ERA. A delivery adjustment four starts ago following an outing against Baltimore has set Sale on a straight path and made him look more like that 2014 version of himself with each passing start.
On Saturday, the 34-year-old needed just 54 pitches for the first four innings of work, allowing just one hit in that stretch — a solo homer to Juan Soto in the second. He retired nine straight batters after the homer before walking Nelson Cruz on five pitches to lead off the fifth. Sale got Jake Cronenworth to strike out but then hit Brandon Dixon, putting two on with one out.
But Sale got the next batter to fly out to right before catching Austin Nola looking for a called third strike on a slider down and away.
In the sixth, Fernando Tatis Jr. tagged Sale for his second hit of the game with another solo homer. Ha-Seong Kim followed in the next at-bat with a double to right. Instead of wilting, though, Sale buckled down. He got Xander Bogaerts to fly out to deep right field, moving Kim to third in the 4-2 game. He got Soto to strike out on a checked swing and then got Cruz to swing-and-miss on three straight sliders to end the inning at 98 pitches.
But he still wasn’t done.
Manager Alex Cora, in what could have been a risky move, trusted Sale for the seventh. Cronenworth, a lefty, was leading off the frame and Sale struck him out on six pitches. Seven pitches later, Sale had retired Dixon and Jose Azocar on a flyout and groundout, walking off the mound after 111 pitches.
Cora said he didn’t hesitate to leave the lefty in the game.
“He’s in a good spot,” Cora said. “Early on (in the season), there was a game against the Twins that he went six and a lefty was coming up in the seventh, but I didn’t feel comfortable sending him out there. Now you feel good about it, understanding that there’s going to be an off day and his next start is Friday.
“We always talk about that F-you attitude,” Cora said of Sale’s demeanor in tough situations late in games. “Those three sliders to Nelson, I was like, you know what? This is the game. Go out there. We had Kutter (Crawford) ready just in case.”
The Red Sox offense got Sale an early lead that he never relinquished. In the second inning, Raimel Tapia hit a one-out single to right and Kiké Hernandez reached after he was hit by a pitch from Padres starter Joe Musgrove. The Red Sox put on a double steal and Tapia initially was called out at third, but after a replay review, the call was overturned, putting both runners in scoring position. It didn’t quite matter, though. In the next at-bat, Enmanuel Valdez rocketed a three-run homer to right field giving the Red Sox a quick 3-0 lead.
Two innings later, Hernandez led off with a double to center. At first, the was called out at second base on the relay throw, but a savvy slide on replay overturned the call and Hernandez was safe. Connor Wong singled to move Hernandez to third and Alex Verdugo drove Hernandez in with a single to left.
Chris Martin shut down the Padres in the eighth. And Kenley Jansen, who hadn’t pitched in a week since blowing consecutive saves last weekend at home, closed out the ninth, despite more command issues, picking up his 10th save.
The win secured the 10th series win of the season for the Red Sox as they look for the sweep on Sunday against a familiar face in Michael Wacha.
(Photo of Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale: David Frerker / USA Today)