Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox
ERA through April 30th: 6.30
ERA since May 1st: 2.09
Chris Sale didn’t at all enjoy the start to this season. He got back to his dominant ways since the start of May, though, and by looking at his overall stats (3.49 ERA and 2.8 fWAR through 90.1 innings), the only way you’d know he struggled is by looking at his record (3-7).
It’s hard to talk about Sale’s turnaround without mentioning how much his strikeout rate and walk rate have changed over this period of time. At the end of April, he had posted a 24.1% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. Since the start of May, those numbers have improved to 42.4% and 4.8%, respectively.
The veteran southpaw has been using his fastball a lot more often, too. His usage rate has jumped from 37.3% to 47.6% during this period, along with gaining one mile-per-hour in average velocity. This shift has come at the expense of his changeup, which hitters have produced a .778 OPS and 112 wRC+ so far this year, easily the worst of all his offerings.
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