Basketball

Nathan Eovaldi’s keen eye might help Chris Sale return to form for Red Sox


If Chris Sale can harness what’s been hindering him on the mound the last few weeks, it might be partially thanks to the keen eye of Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi, who’s been teammates with Sale since the latter’s 2018 trade to Boston, noticed something that’s been off for Sale mechanically since his return from Tommy John surgery this summer — something that especially stood out during his poor outing in Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.

“He’s one of those guys where it really doesn’t take much for him to get back on track,” Eovaldi said Wednesday at Fenway Park, where the team worked out before heading to Houston for the start of the American League Championship Series Friday. “I don’t think he was that far off. There were a couple things mechanically that I thought were a little different now than where he has been in the past.”

Eovaldi has had Tommy John surgery twice, once as a junior in high school in 2007 and again in 2016 while with the Yankees, so he knows a thing or two about what it’s like bouncing back from the elbow surgery.

“That’s one of the big things, coming back from Tommy John, is everybody expects you to come back perfect right away and I know firsthand it’s not always like that,” Eovaldi said. “I’m a big mechanics guy and he’s a grip-it-and-rip-it type guy, so me being able to talk to him a little bit, little things about his mechanics, and he said he felt the same thing I was saying, so hopefully he’ll be ready to go.”

When Sale returned from Tommy John surgery on Aug.





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