Chris Sale knows it will be hard not to crack a few smiles when he takes the mound at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday night against some of his former White Sox teammates.
That doesn't mean the Red Sox left-hander is going to take it easy on them.
"I'm still going to compete, that's for sure," Sale said. "They're still my friends, but I'm not going to give them anything."
The White Sox wouldn't expect anything less from their fiery former ace, who spent the first seven seasons of his career on the South Side, including five as a starter. He will face left-hander Jose Quintana, who called his Tuesday opponent "one of my best teammates I ever played with."
Wearing a green camouflage Red Sox hat for Memorial Day, Sale told reporters in a Guaranteed Rate Field conference room Monday that he harbors "no hard feelings" toward White Sox management for sending him to Boston in a trade that netted four highly regarded prospects, including baseball's top prospect Yoan Moncada.
He said he learned anything can happen after Mark Buehrle left the White Sox for free agency after the 2011 season.
"You know coming into this that anything and everything is a possibility, getting traded, free agency," Sale said. "It's very rare that you see one guy stay with one team from start to finish."
Sale repeatedly said he appreciated his time in Chicago, where he had a 3.00 ERA and 1,244 strikeouts but also spent a turbulent 2016 season. That included a war of words with Sox executive vice president Ken Williams over the involvement of Adam LaRoche's son with the club and LaRoche's ensuing retirement. There also was the bizarre incident last July when Sale cut up his teammates' throwback jerseys because he didn't want to play in them.
But he said Tuesday he had no regrets during his time with the White Sox and added that "I can't change the past, just try to become better in the future."
"There were a couple blips on the radar amongst a lot of really good times," Sale said. "More times than not, it was great here, and I appreciated it. I always had good teammates. I always had a great coaching staff. I'm appreciative of that, so I don't want to lose sight of that."
While he found it "weird" to walk into the visitors' clubhouse Monday, Sale said he was excited to catch up with his former teammates and pitching coach Don Cooper, who called him "one of the top 10 pitchers in the world."
But he also spoke highly of his time in Boston, where he said Red Sox fans generously have accepted him while he has pitched to a 2.34 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 73 innings. He said he has enjoyed the "different look" of pitching coach Carl Willis and making Fenway Park his new home.
"There's nothing like pitching at Fenway Park, and I've even said that as a visiting player," Sale said. "The energy that place creates, the vibe that is buzzing there 24/7, is fun. There's pros and cons to everything, and so far I've thoroughly enjoyed it."
White Sox manager Rick Renteria said he expects it to be "a battle" for his team Tuesday and noted they need to jump on Sale early before he settles in.
"He's just a tremendous competitor," Renteria said. "The individual that has the strength and the skillset that he has always has an edge. That was part of what makes him so good. You can't take that away from him. He's going to be who he's going to be. He impacted us in an immense way with his performances and with a lot of the things he did with a lot of people in the stands. ... He touched a lot of people. The White Sox were better for having him."
Red Sox manager John Farrell expects that competitor to take over on the mound Tuesday.
"Tomorrow will be an adrenaline-packed day," Farrell said. "It's a special day when players come back and compete against their original organization, and knowing what we do so far about Chris, he'll be up for it."
