The Boston Red Sox will be without Chris Sale to begin the year. Boston’s left-hander suffered a stress fracture in his rib.
“I went to doctor Patrick Joyner, who’s in the area,” Sale said. “Got an MRI, CT scan, an X-ray, the whole thing and they saw on the MRI that I had a stress fracture… I believe it’s the eighth rib.
“Took some medicine, tried to get some of the inflammation out of there,” Sale added. “Now we’re just waiting. We’re playing the waiting game, waiting for the bone to heal.”
Sale returned after Tommy John surgery late in the 2021 season, and it’s good for both Sale and the Sox that it’s not related to his elbow.
The 32-year-old says the injury happened at live BP that was live-streamed on Instagram by Matt Barnes, among others, before the lockout ended. Sale, Nick Pivetta, and others attended a workout at FGCU — Sale’s alma mater. The scoreboard is named after Sale, who seemingly donated money to the program.
“I felt it after I was pitching,” said Sale, “on that live BP. It was kind of weird. I threw that day, everything was going well, I don’t know if you guys watched it, but the ball felt like it was coming out of my hand good. Throwing sliders, throwing all of my pitches, even did a full upper-body injury after that.
“Just, kind of the next four or five days after that, it just kept getting progressively worse and worse,” he added. “That’s when I was finally like, ‘I gotta say something to somebody.
Because players on the 40-man roster can not communicate with major-league staff, Sale could not go to team doctors. Sale had to reach out to Dr. Joyner.
“He really hooked me up when I needed it,” Sale said of Dr. Joyner.
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