Fastball

Boston Red Sox Pitcher Chris Sale Hits Himself with Baseball in Frustration

Boston Red Sox hurler Chris Sale, known to be a fiery competitor, took his frustrations out on his own noggin on Friday night during a tough inning against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Brady Farkas|
Boston Red Sox Pitcher Chris Sale Hits Himself with Baseball in Frustration
Boston Red Sox Pitcher Chris Sale Hits Himself with Baseball in Frustration

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Boston Red SoxPhiladelphia PhilliesChicago White Sox

Usually, Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale is taking his frustrations out on the water cooler in the dugout. 

On Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies? Sale elected to take frustrations out on his own head, hitting himself on the side of the head with a baseball on the mound.

You can see the quick video below:

The fourth inning certainly was a tough one for Sale. He allowed an infield single to Bryce Harper, a double to Nick Castellanos, a triple to JT Realmuto, and a single to Alec Bohm.

All told, Sale gave up three runs in the inning but was able to bounce back and retire the three batters after Bohm's hit.

Outside of that fourth inning, it was another effective start for Sale. He went six innings, allowed just those three runs and had ten strikeouts.

His ERA for the season is still at 6.37 but the radar gun was reading as high as 99 MPH on Friday night, so you have to believe that Sale continues to unlock things.

As much as we like to see Sale be competitive and fiery, the Red Sox would be best served by him not hitting himself with a baseball. Sale missed all of 2020 and most of 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then missed nearly of 2022 with an illness, a broken finger and then a broken wrist.

The last thing the Red Sox need is self-inflicted damage.

At the time of this posting, the Red Sox are in line for their seventh straight victory. If they hold on (5-3, bottom 9), Sale will move to 3-2 on the season.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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