Walking on the Fenway mound for the first time since his departure brought all these moments.
“It’s like getting into your childhood home,” said dirty. “You just have a lot of memories you have built. Many relationships you still have and enjoy.”
He was warmly welcomed before taking the mound, but he said to himself: “The ceremony stops at Pitch 1.”
Sale’s challenge was to return the switch to a night when nostalgia could have overwhelmed.
“You just try to push everyone on the side of the road and do your job,” he said, “and it’s going there and trying to win a ball game.”
The SOX’s challenge was to try not to be overwhelmed by the sale – which turned out to be impossible. He gave Atlanta seven heats of a ball to a race, withdrawing eight while only abandoning five strokes.
He buzzed in the SOX range essentially in the same way as he did a year ago in Atlanta, when he faced the SOX and launched six -sleeves without goal with 10 ks. The only damage that the SOXs could bring together the sale was a Homer in a solo head of Rob Refsnyder in the seventh.
“We knew what we were facing Chris tonight, and he looked really, really good,” said Refsnyder.
Sox ace Garrett Crochet also knew it. He equaled the seven rounds of dirty and eight sticks to the stick, but abandoned the consecutive circuits to Matt Olson and Sean Murphy in the second which gave more than sitting to breathe.
“For my part, I know I must have my best things that day,” said hook. “If I don’t do it, I have to run something. Fortunately, apart from the two circuits, I felt like I had my best things. I worked all night. I felt really good. ”
Crochet removed the side in the first on 11 throws, eight fast balls. But he missed with a four runners against Olson, who raised him in the first row of monster seats for his eighth circuit of the season. Then he fed another four runners in Murphy, who sent him two rows deeper.
“I think I made the locations I wanted,” said hook. “I went up and arrived in Murphy and got there. I tried to go down to Olson but at the same time, just trying to throw him away. I thought it was an effective miss. He just made an effective swing.”
The SOXs did not help each other on the basic paths. Three rounds ended with basic errors. During the third round, Rafael Devers was surprised stealing second. Jarren Duran was taken in another pickle in the sixth. In the seventh, Nick Sogard was thrown in second position trying to stretch a simple wall ball in a double.
The SOX enclosure collapsed in the ninth. Liam Hendriks walked on Marcell Ozuna to drive the Channel. After withdrawing Olson and Murphy ends, he walked Ozzie Albies. Cora called Brennan Bernardino to get out of the Sox from the jam, but Bernardino walked Michael Harris II on four throws to load the bases – then walked Stuart Fairchild to force in a race.
Bernardino’s night ended when he walked on Nick Allen to give the brave a 4-1 lead. It is the sixth launcher of the Red Sox to face at least three strikers and to walk each of them. The last to do so was Hirokazu Sawamura in 2021.
These races counted when a story of Trevor distinguished a race at home in the ninth, but Wilyer Abreu flew to end it.
The margin of error was slim against the defending winner of the triple crown, but with the Sox also losing four consecutive games and five of the seven, it was much thinner.
“It’s frustrating,” said SOX manager Alex Cora. “When you spend weeks like this, you don’t have to push the limits, right? It’s the opposite. We have to slow it into a team and I don’t think we did it today.”
Julian Benbow can be contacted in julian.benbow@globe.com.
