BOSTON — Chris Sale had successful surgery on his fractured finger on Monday, the Red Sox announced.
After suffering a fractured pinky finger on his pitching hand in the Red Sox’s loss to the Yankees on Sunday, Sale returned to Boston and underwent an “open reduction and internal fixation of a left fifth finger proximal phalanx fracture,” the team said. The procedure was performed by Dr. Matthew Leibman at the Newton-Wellesley Outpatient Surgery Center in Wellesley.
There’s no timetable for Sale’s return, but the Red Sox pitcher said Sunday that he hopes to pitch again this season.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Sale said of returning this year. “It’s a broken bone. I’ve been there. Four to six weeks, starting getting active again, moving around a little bit and we’ll see from there.”
Sale suffered the injury in the first inning of Sunday’s loss, when Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks hit a line drive back at Sale that smoked his pitching hand. The lefty fell to the grass before immediately getting back up and walking straight off the field.
Sale is once again expected to miss significant time. The pitcher has made just 14 starts (including the playoffs) since the end of the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery that forced him out of the 2020 season and most of 2021, before a stress fracture in his right rib cage kept him out for the first three months of this season. He was making his second start on Sunday before suffering his latest injury.
“Everyone gets knocked down,” Sale said Sunday. “How do you get back up? That’s where I’m at again. Get back up, dust yourself off, clean it up and get back to it.
“One look at this finger, I knew (it was broken) immediately. That feeling of just that kind of cold water rushing through your body when something like that happens. I soon as I hit the ground, I looked down, the finger is gone.”
A seven-time All-Star with the potential to be a staff ace if healthy – and vaccinated – Sale broke a rib while working out on his own during the lockout. He returned on Tuesday and pitched five scoreless innings against Tampa Bay.
Sale, 33, is in the third year of a five-year, $145 million deal.
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