BOSTON — There was Chris Sale, not the Sale with arms raised in triumph after finishing off the Dodgers to give the Red Sox a World Series championship in 2018, but the Sale who five years later has been mostly ordinary or injured since then.
Sale made just his 30th start in the last three years Friday in the Red Sox’ 3-2 win against the White Sox, who traded him to Boston in a Winter Meetings blockbuster before the 2016 season. But he delivered the Red Sox that title, leaving no dispute about who won the trade.
A World Series is a World Series.
And an underwhelming return is an underwhelming return.
The Sox got Cuban third baseman Yoan Moncada, then ranked the No. 1 prospect, and Michael Kopech, the Red Sox’ best pitching prospect, among a package of four minor leaguers. It was the first of three trades for prospects prompting general manager Rick Hahn to promise multiple championships on the South Side. But one division title and two quick ousters from the postseason later, Hahn and executive vice president Ken Williams have been fired.
Kopech on Friday ended a terrible season at Rush Hospital, having a cyst removed from his right knee. Moncada had one very good season in 2019 and another decent one in 2021. Kopech has failed to establish himself as a top rotation starter.
He might be clinging to hopes of remaining a starter, period.
At least Moncada is finishing strong this season after dealing with back problems that have limited him to 87 games in the second to last year of a $60 million contract that will pay him $25 million in 2024.
But manager Pedro Grifol wants much more.
“He’s played really good baseball but there is another level to him, too,” Grifol said before the game Friday. “It’s our job and my responsibility to make sure we tap into that level. Those have been our conversations with him, especially mine. I have them frequently. I actually had one today on that.”
Batting second against Sale and hitting right-handed Friday, Moncada lined a single to left in the first inning, staying hot after entering with a .323/.362/.546 with six homers, 11 doubles and 22 RBI in his previous 36 games.
“He is so [darn] talented that we have to tap into, and he has to tap into, that little extra that he’s got in there to become one of the best players in baseball, which, he’s got that type of talent,” Grifol said.
Sale, one of the best starters in White Sox history when he was there from 2010-16, has never been short on talent. He struck out seven over five scoreless innings and left with a 1-0 lead and a 4.42 ERA.
Now needing to win five of their last eight games to avoid losing 100 games, the Sox (58-96) got 6 1⁄3 innings of one-run ball from Touki Toussaint but the Red Sox (76-78) got two runs in the eighth against Bryan Shaw and Garrett Crochet, the latter making his first appearance since June 15 after coming back from shoulder inflammation.
The Sox fell behind Sale 1-0 in the fifth when Trevor Story beat out a ground ball to shortstop Tim Anderson leading off the fifth and eventually scored on Ceddane Rafaela’s sacrifice fly. Anderson took too much time making the throw, and it cost him.
Against reliever Garrett Whitlock, the Sox scored two in the sixth on Andrew Vaughn’s RBI single and Trayce Thompson’s RBI double. Luis Robert Jr. got the inning started with a single and his 18th and 19th stolen bases as he closed in on becoming the second Sox along with Magglio Ordonez in 2001 to have 30 homers, 30 doubles and 20 stolen bases in a season.
The Sox are a season low 38 games below .500.