Dombrowski downplays Sale injury: Will be 'plenty ready for late September'

Boston Red Sox fans collectively held their breath when it was announced last week that Chris Sale would return to the disabled list with left shoulder inflammation.

Sale recently spent just over two weeks on the DL for the same injury before making a brief return against the Baltimore Orioles for five shutout innings on Aug. 12. Though he looked his usual dominant self on the mound, he apparently needed more time to recover.

"It's not as bad as it was last time," Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said during a Jimmy Fund Radiothon interview with Dale & Keefe, according to WEEI's John Tomase. "I think we will get him plenty ready for late September."

Dombrowski later confirmed he was not suggesting Sale would be held out until the end of September, but rather that's when he expects the lefty to be back to 100 percent.

"If we were not in the situation we're in right now with a good lead, I think he'd probably be out there and pitching," Dombrowski said. "We're also in a position where we don't want to do that to him."

With just 35 games to play and an eight-game lead over the New York Yankees entering Wednesday's action, there's little need for Sale to shoulder a heavy workload down the stretch.

The 29-year-old is enjoying another stellar season in Boston, pitching to a 1.97 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and 13.5 K/9 over 146 innings of work.

For his career, though, Sale has struggled to maintain his form later into the season, as he holds a 3.78 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 226 regular-season innings in September and October. He was rocked by the Houston Astros in last year's ALDS, giving up three homers in a Game 1 start and surrendering another out of the bullpen in the series-clinching Game 4.