… The 23-year-old with top-of-the-rotation stuff had his first foray as a starter cut short on Friday, when manager Robin Ventura announced that an organizational decision was made to move the southpaw back into the bullpen. Sale was experiencing soreness in his arm, but as Sale admitted Saturday, he thought it was just normal soreness from his move to a starter.
“Like I said, it’s just tender. It doesn’t hurt when I throw. It’s tender to touch and it takes a little bit to get loosened up,” Sale said. “I thought it was just soreness. It was just sore to me and doesn’t hurt or anything.
“They thought it might trickle into something else. I didn’t see that at all. I just saw it as typical soreness after throwing. Like I said, those guys know what they are doing. They’ve been there and done that. You have to listen to them.”
No MRI was done on Sale’s elbow, and Sale doesn’t believe his unique pitching style or mechanics have anything to do with the soreness. He has been pitching the same way since college.
A decision also was made that a trip to the disabled list was not needed. It was simply about managing Sale’s workload, which the White Sox believe is easier to do with him coming out of the bullpen. …
So was the scary ‘soreness and tightness’ talk just an excuse?
