Chris Sale always has been a fiery player, and the veteran southpaw’s emotions got the best of him Wednesday night in Worcester.
Sale wasn’t particularly sharp in what was set up to be his final rehab start before rejoining the Boston Red Sox. The seven-time All-Star only gave up one run against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Rail Raiders, but he issued five walks and needed 72 pitches to get through 3 2/3 innings.
After the underwhelming outing, Sale was caught on video airing out his frustration in the tunnel leading up to the WooSox dugout, which included damaging a television. Roughly 12 hours after the incident, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom joined WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” and shared his thoughts on the matter.
“I did see the video,” Bloom said, as transcribed by WEEI. “I have not talked to anybody, including Chris, about that, but I did see the video. Look, I’m not going to sit here and condone property damage, but he is a competitor. That’s who he is. There are plenty of guys, including somebody we all love who is going into Cooperstown later this month (David Ortiz) who have been caught on tape doing stuff like that when they’re frustrated during a ballgame. It happens, it probably happens more than people think, and with guys that you might never suspect.
“So, it’s never something that we condone, but there’s a lot of passion in this game and when you have someone who holds himself to as high a standard as Chris does and who cares as much as he does, sometimes that passion is going to express itself in different ways.”
One can understand why Sale was so frustrated, as Wednesday’s start was poised to be the final step in his long journey back to Boston. And whenever the star left-hander does rejoin the Red Sox, the club will clearly be receiving a player who is highly motivated to make an impact.