The Red Sox’s COVID-19 outbreak continues to worsen, as left-hander Chris Sale will miss his scheduled start against the White Sox on Sunday after testing positive for the virus:
BREAKING: Chris Sale tests positive for COVID-19, will not make scheduled start Sunday.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) September 10, 2021
Sale will be the 12th Red Sox player to hit the COVID-19 injured list over the last month and the 10th to test positive. He joins Kiké Hernandez, Danny Santana, and Josh Taylor — all of whom have since been activated — as well as Christian Arroyo, Matt Barnes, Xander Bogaerts, Jarren Duran, Yairo Muñoz, Martín Pérez, Nick Pivetta, and Hirokazu Sawamura as players who have missed time either due to contact tracing or positive tests.
Sale’s loss is a major one for the Red Sox, who are 1.0 game ahead of the Yankees and 1.5 ahead of the Blue Jays for the top wild card spot in the American League. While the 32-year-old lefty has allowed a lot of contact in five starts since returning from Tommy John surgery and has a .290 opponent batting average and 1.40 WHIP, he’s been effective at keeping runs off the board and has a 2.52 ERA with 30 strikeouts and six walks in 25 innings.
