This weekend appears to be an overdose of comeback fever for a Boston-Red-Sox-converted-St.-Louis-Cardinal fan.
Two disabled pitching stars are making their first starts with the success of the ML Baseball home stretch hanging in the balance.
On Friday Cardinal ace Jack Flaherty returns to service following two months sidelined with a torn oblique muscle. Here’s the good news from Mike Claiborne of Sportsgrid.
Mike Claiborne reports St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty will start Friday against the Kansas City Royals.
Flaherty has been sidelined with an oblique injury, last pitching in a 9-4 Cardinals loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 31. He went five innings, allowing two runs on two hits and striking out nine batters. Making 11 starts this season, Flaherty has an 8-1 record with a 2.90 ERA, 26% K rate and a 1.03 WHIP. He has struck out six or more batters in eight starts this season as a top arm in the National League.
Meanwhile, the legendary left arm of Chris Sale will be deployed in the Major League for the first time in two years, when he steps on the mound against the White Sox on Saturday.
When Chris Sale at last steps back on that mound for the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, it will be the first time he has done so in a Major League game in two years and one day. That’s right – Aug. 13, 2019, was the last time Sale pitched a game for Boston.
With the Red Sox trying to emerge from their worst slump of the season (Wednesday’s 20-8 rout of the Rays was a good place to start), the return of the ace takes on even more significance.
It was going to be an ideal scenario that would allow Sale to get his legs back under him while providing a huge boost of energy that would help the Red Sox avoid those dreaded dog days of August.
Probably no one but a hybrid Red Sox/ Cardinal fan can be as excited as I am about the return of two pitching legends at this juncture of the season. These are potential Hall-of-Fame pitchers with extraordinary impact on ordinary teams. Perhaps I should give the Red Sox credit for their extraordinary season that has kept them at least as Wild Card contenders beyond the expectations of most baseball pundits. But it doesn’t diminish the need for an ace lefty to revive their pitching staff on August 21.
It would be a mistake to expect any pitcher, no matter how talented, to return to form in a single start, but expectations will be high for both of these remarkable pitchers. They are more than mortal in St. Louis and New York, so we should try to temper our expectations for arms that will need pampering.
The moment Jack and Chris stand on a Major League mound will still be inspiring to the players behind them and the fans who have anticipated them. I will be one of those fans, excited by the return of the god-like Flaherty and Sale. Just show a glimpse of former glory, and I will be satisfied. A couple of innings of shutout ball, and maybe a couple of staggering exhaustion. That’s all I ask. The rest is recovery and seeds of hope for this fateful season.