BOSTON _ It was all anyone in the ballpark in the Bronx wanted to talk about Wednesday night.
The fans began chanting "We want Boston," in the sixth inning and the Yankee players, their uniforms soaked in Champagne, welcomed the challenge of taking on the Red Sox.
But Boston starter Chris Sale had no interest in discussing his matchup against the Yankees. When asked at Thursday's workout day at Fenway Park if he would talk about his success against the Yankees, the lefty said: No.
OK, then. The stats will have to speak for themselves.
The veteran lefty is 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA against the Yankees this season. He has struck out 19 and allowed just one home run (against the lineup that smashed the single-season record) in 13 innings pitched. The Yankees hit .188 against him this season with a .470 OPS.
In 17 career appearances against the Yankees, 14 starts, Sale has a 1.61 ERA. He's held them to a .189 batting average, striking out 130 over 1002/3 innings pitched.
The concern for the Red Sox, however, is if Sale is healthy. He was limited to just 17 innings pitched since July 27 because of shoulder inflammation. After averaging 97 to 98 miles per hour in the middle of the season, Sale's velocity hasn't come back since coming off the disabled list. His fastball averaged 92 mph in September.
A scout who watched Sale's last three starts said he wouldn't necessarily be too concerned about the lack of velocity that Sale showed in his final start of the regular season.
"It was noticeable, but it looks like he has been working on mechanics. He's still getting swing-and-misses," he said. "I am not sure he'll get that velo back by the playoffs, but he will still be effective."
And the bottom line, Sale has proven he knows how to do what is most important against the Yankees: keep them in the ballpark. That's the plan for not just Sale, but the entire Red Sox pitching corps going into the series.
"We have to keep them in the ballpark. That's the most important thing. From top to bottom they can hit the ball out of the ballpark. It's a tough lineup," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "Like I've been saying, there's heat maps. There's red and there's blue. We have to pitch to blue. If we do that, we're going to be in good shape."
To be fair, while Sale wouldn't discuss his success against the Yankees, he recognized the rivalry is good for the game. He remembers watching the heated series back in 2003 and '04.
"I mean, obviously looking back, it's a lot of passion, a lot of heated rivalries. You know, that's part of the build-up with this. I know you guys like to make a big deal of it and everything because of what's happened in the past, obviously earlier this year and all that you got two big-time teams that played really good baseball throughout the regular season about to go head to head at the most important time of the year," Sale said. "If you can't get excited for that, I think you're doing the wrong thing."
