FORT MYERS, Fla. — It’s not hard to understand why Chris Sale is a nightmare for left-handers to face.
“Just watch it,” said fellow Red Sox newcomer Mitch Moreland, who is hitless in five at-bats against Sale in his career. “You’ll be able to tell.”
The angle of the slingshot from which Sale releases the ball from the left side means left-handed hitters find themselves having to look almost over their right shoulders to find the ball at its release point. Sometimes the pitch is a fastball that stays in on those hitters. Sometimes it’s a slider that comes all the way across, eliciting wild flails.
Sale is so dominant against left-handers – he totaled 14 strikeouts for every walk he issued against them last season, and he hit more than he walked – that lefties with any say in the matter tend to avoid him. Of the 50 major league pitchers last season who faced at least 750 batters, none faced fewer lefties (135) than Sale.
But what makes Sale elite is his ability to replicate his effectiveness against right-handers.
Sidearming lefties tend to be typecast as situational relievers. Righties usually see the ball too well from that angle for pitchers to get swings and misses against them. On top of that, that arm angle tends not to be conducive to command of the change-up that’s generally necessary to pitch against opposite-handed hitters. Sale himself spent his first two big-league seasons as a reliever, in part over concerns about his ability to stay healthy.
But Sale is as dominant against righties, throwing from the left side, as most of the best right-handed pitchers. Among pitchers with more than 20 starts last season, only Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers posted a better strikeout-to-walk ratio against righties than Sale (4.55).
Sale has compiled a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.5 or better against righties in each of the last four seasons, and he’s never gone through a season in which righties have slugged higher than .400 against him.
Righties, it turns out, don’t see the ball much better against Sale than lefties do.
“It’s the same thing,” said Chris Young, a hitter whose role with the Red Sox is to hit tough lefties like Sale or David Price. (Young is 1 for 11 in his career against Sale.) “I don’t know if he does it consciously or not, but his arm angle changes at all times, so when you’re trying to pick up the release point, it’s tough. He’s long and coming across his body, and it just creates a different angle you’re not used to seeing.”
“I don’t know if it matters whether you’re left-handed or right-handed,” said Brock Holt, who swings from the left side. “He throws from that funky angle. He’s kind of herky-jerky, hard to pick up. That’s tough on any hitter, right-handed or left-handed.”
It’s tough on fellow pitchers, too.
It was tough on David Price, pitching next to Sale in the bullpen last week. Price found himself needing to give Sale some extra space to allow for an arm that sweeps far wider than almost any other during its delivery.
It was tough on Joe Kelly even just playing catch with Sale on Monday.
“You have to change where you’re looking at,” Kelly said. “I started looking at his hip to see where the ball would come out, and then I started picking it up a little better. He took it easy on me. I wouldn’t want to face that.”
Red Sox hitters certainly will be happy to see Sale in their uniform.
Aside from Xander Bogaerts, who has hit .417 with a home run and two walks in 15 plate appearances against Sale, the entire Red Sox roster has a combined two extra-base hits with 28 strikeouts and two walks in 97 plate appearances against Sale. Jackie Bradley is 1 for 11 with six strikeouts. Holt is 1 for 11 with five strikeouts. Dustin Pedroia is 1 for 9. Hanley Ramirez is 1 for 9 with five strikeouts. Pablo Sandoval is 0 for 8 with four strikeouts. Moreland is 0 for 5 with a strikeout.
“I’m glad I don’t have to face him,” Pedroia said.
“He’s got a lot going on out there,” Moreland said. “He’s long, with a lanky look to it. It jumps out of his hand. He’s very deceptive – on top of his stuff. That makes him one of the best.”
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