FORT MYERS, Fla. (WHDH) — The Boston Red Sox are soaking up the Florida sun as pitchers and catchers hit the field in Fort Myers Tuesday for their first spring training workout, and one marquee newcomer is eager to get the season started.
Ex-Chicago White Sox ace Chris Sale has high expectations. He said he’s with the Red Sox for one reason only and that’s to win games.
“You can ask my little league coach, you can ask my high school coach, you can ask my college coach, I want to win, plain and simple,” said Sale. “That’s my only job.
Sale is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, but he’s never pitched in the postseason. Now in Boston, he realizes that dream could seen become a reality.
“There’s a lot of banners here. I’d like to add to that,” Sale said. “You can feel what this team is about coming in, just with the intensity, not only from the players, but the staff.”
Sale joins an already loaded starting rotation, which included former Cy Young winners Rick Porcello and David Price.
The @RedSox three headed monster! Sale, Porcello and Price! pic.twitter.com/wUdLLASLTL
— Chelsi McDonald (@ChelsiMMcDonald) February 14, 2017
“Most importantly for all of us, he’s in our uniform,” manager John Farrell said.
If Boston’s staff pitches up to expectations, a championship could be within reach.
“You get a feel for what they are on the mound, that is a fiercely intense competitor. He’s a very genuine guy, genuine person, but he brings an edge with him in between the lines that will fit very well here,” Farrell said of Sale.
That edge Sale brings sometimes gets the best of him. He has a history of letting his emotions deter him from the task at hand, but now he joins a new team, with a mentality of ignoring distractions and focusing on winning.
“John was saying we had a very talented team, and I’m just sitting there, you start looking around and you see the names in the lockers, you start thinking about what those guys have done, where they’ve been. It’s impressive,” Sale said.
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