From Alex Speier:
Sale’s Opening Day start was the worst by a Red Sox starter since 2002. The culprit that year? Pedro Martinez, who allowed eight runs (seven earned) in three innings in a 12-11 loss to the Blue Jays.
That game seemed to wave all kinds of red flags. Martinez, after all, was coming off a 2001 campaign in which he was typically brilliant when on the mound (7-3, 2.39 ERA, 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings) but was limited to 18 starts by an injured rotator cuff. And so, his Opening Day-egg against the Blue Jays, in which he gave up nine hits in those three innings and walked two batters, seemed ominous.
Over his remaining 29 starts that year, Martinez went 20-4 with a 1.97 ERA and 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings. He was the American League Cy Young runner-up.
Put another way: If Sale’s struggles – most notably, a four-seam fastball that he threw 25 times at an average velocity of 92.3 miles per hour, resulting in just 12 strikes (48 percent) and, for the first time in his Red Sox career, no swings and misses – weren’t the product of injury, then what gives?
Red Sox pitching coach Dana LeVangie suggested that Sale did not stay in his delivery, flying open too soon in his upper body rather than remaining closed off while on the rubber. Sale’s changeup was his most effective pitch on Thursday. On that offering, LeVangie saw the mechanics Sale needs on his entire mix.
At a time when the Sox want the lefthander to control his effort level and build gradually into his velocity (“driving the Mustang, not the Ferrari,” in LeVangie’s terms), the Sox need Sale to have his delivery under control so that his three pitches can play off each other more effectively. If that happens, LeVangie believes the pitcher’s normal velocity will follow.