Chris Sale reminds Red Sox what they’re missing as Boston's slump continues with Braves sweep

At the time of the trade this offseason, we all thought the Red Sox would sorely miss Sale — if he could stay healthy. While having Sale in the mix this year would still be a plus, starting pitching amazingly hasn’t been a problem for this Red Sox team.  

Even though the Sox haven’t necessarily been missing Sale, it was clear Sale was still missing them. 

“We won a championship together,” Sale regaled. “I watched Rafael Devers make his major league debut and turn into a $300 million superstar. I was watching Kutter Crawford at (Florida Gulf Coast), that guy’s like a little brother to me. You know, even Nick Pivetta, we had some offseasons (together). The list goes on and on, and I could sit here and talk about AC for the next three hours.” 

One of the reasons Boston hasn’t missed Sale as much as expected had been Pivetta, who like everyone else in the Sox’s rotation was off to a fast start before landing on the injured list with a right elbow flexor strain. Pivetta made his return to action Wednesday, and it did not go particularly well…

Pivetta, who entered the game with a 0.82 ERA, was knocked around for all five runs on seven hits — including three home runs — in just four innings. He threw 58 pitches, 39 strikes, and walked one, all resulting in a 3.60 season ERA.

It was only the third time in his career he’s totaled more home runs allowed than strikeouts — which is pretty impressive.

“Sweeper was off, cutter was good, curveball was good, fastball location was off today,” Pivetta assessed postgame. “I’m in a big league baseball game and I expect myself to be the same and go out there and produce the way I want to given what I have to do, but things happen.” 

Pivetta struggling in his first start in over a month is not a big surprise, and his pitching woes were the Sox’s only ones of the night as the bullpen combined for four scoreless, two-hit innings in relief of him.

Then there’s the flip side of the Sale trade… Vaughn Grissom. The 23-year-old’s second game against his former team was — much like his Sox debut — unceremonious. Batting fifth behind Devers, Grissom went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts to drop his batting average to .118.

Grissom’s re-acclimation into the lineup has been a slow one. After his hitless debut, Grissom went 2 for his next 10 — but he did have a two-run double in Boston’s 9-2 rout of Minnesota to avoid a sweep on Sunday.

As with Pivetta, I’m not all that concerned about a player who missed most of spring training and the start of the season struggling in just his fourth game of the year with a brand new ballclub. The Sox are taking a patient approach with Grissom, which is good, because it looks like they’re going to need it.

We may look back one day and say the Red Sox got the better of the Sale-Grissom trade, but Wednesday wasn’t that day…

On the whole, it was another dud of an offensive performance for the Boston bats — and a loss that dropped the Sox to 19-18 on the season with their fifth loss in six games, and their eighth in 14 tries. 

In their last five losses, Cora’s team scored more than a single run just twice. It prompted Cora to sound the alarm for the first time in earnest this season after Wednesday’s loss. 

“We need to be better. We have to,” an exasperated Cora said. “We didn’t hit throughout the road trip. You start looking at our offense and we fall into this trap that it looks really, really good because we score runs, but I mean look at the shutouts and the percentage of games that we haven’t scored more than two runs. We gotta be better.” 

Things could get a little better over the weekend, as the Sox now head to the nation’s capital for a three-game series against Washington beginning Friday. Yet even the Nationals, who everybody expected to be terrible, are in a similar spot as Boston with an 18-18 record.

After that, it doesn’t get any easier. Boston returns home to face rival Tampa Bay six times in a nine-game stretch that also includes a trip to St. Louis. Any momentum the Red Sox had sustained from a solid homestand has been undone amid a disappointing trip, and based on Cora’s reaction, one can’t help but wonder if we’re not on the verge of the wheels falling off for this team…