The Boston Red Sox appeared to suffer a major blow against the New York Yankees on Sunday (BOS-NYY GameTracker) when ace lefty Chris Sale was forced out of the start with a hand injury. Sale suffered the injury in the bottom of the first when a line drive from Aaron Hicks’ bat hit him in the hand, and the Red Sox later announced the injury as a fractured left fifth finger, or broken pinky. Here’s a look at the game: As you can see, Sale immediately left the field and his left pinky finger appeared to be disfigured. Since the injury is in his hand, he is likely to be committed to the injured list and a significant rehab period. This was just Sale’s second start of the 2022 season. He returned from a stress fracture in his cage suffered late in spring training on July 12. On Sunday, Sale, who was replaced by Hirokazu Sawamura after the injury, allowed three runs (two earned) in just 2/3 of an inning. The result raised Sale’s ERA after two starts to 3.18. The 33-year-old is in the third year of a five-year, $145 million deal with Boston. The struggling Red Sox, who entered Sunday’s rubber match having lost five of their last six and nine of their last 12, have already been plagued by injury problems in the rotation. Currently, five starting pitchers — Rich Hill, Connor Seabold, Michael Wacha, Josh Winckowski and James Paxton — are in IL for Boston. Sale’s injury will likely accelerate the front office’s quest to acquire rotation help by the Aug. 2 trade deadline, but ownership’s commitment to invest in the roster has been lacking for some time.
