Six pitches. That was all it took. Six pitches and Nick Hostetler was sold -- on Sale. Chris Sale, that is, the skinny kid from the small college in southwest Florida who wound up being the biggest deal at the 2009 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star Game.
It was a good thing, then, that Hostetler didn't leave his seat in the bottom of the third inning on that Thursday night at Fenway Park. Many others probably did. It was foggy and drizzling, and the rain was only getting heavier. And, well, there were Fenway Franks heating up on rollers at concession stands under cover on the concourse.
But Hostetler wasn't moving a muscle. Not with Sale coming in from the bullpen for the East All-Stars to face the heart of the West's batting order. It was one of the reasons Hostetler, a Chicago White Sox scout, fought the late-afternoon traffic to get to Boston. He didn't want to miss this.
And he wasn't disappointed.
"Guys had no chance against him," Hostetler says. "I mean, zero."
As Sale prepares to pitch in his sixth consecutive MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Miami, the story of those six pitches (and Sale's formative summer on the Cape) -- told by those who were there -- reveals that the Boston Red Sox ace lefty was almost preordained to be one of the best pitchers of his generation.
Getting noticed
Every summer, scouts flock to Cape Cod to get a glimpse of the best college players in the country. And for weeks leading up to the Cape League All-Star Game on July 23, 2009, it seemed the scouts all wanted to know when Sale was scheduled to pitch for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
SCOTT PICKLER, Y-D COACH: Chris put himself on the map when he threw opening night for me. I said, "Chris, early in the Cape [season], we can beat guys inside because they're not used to the wood bats." He goes, "I don't throw in very much." I said, "Well, we are tonight." I don't know how many he punched out that first night, but when he came off the mound, he had a little grin on his face and he says, "Throwing in is a pretty good thing, Pick."
CHRIS SALE: Pick ran a ballclub much like a professional team. He wasn't going to sit there and babysit you. He's one of the best juco coaches in the country [at Cypress College in California]. I don't know how many junior college coaches have a team in the Cape, and he's been there forever [20 years]. He definitely knows what he's doing. Him and me just got along well from the beginning. He was no B.S., all about baseball. I was like, "OK, perfect."
JOSH RUTLEDGE, RED SOX INFIELDER/Y-D TEAMMATE: We had a ton of scouts out there because of [Sale], which was good for all of us. Even the opposing teams had more scouts looking at them just because he was there.
BRIAN FLETCHER, FALMOUTH OUTFIELDER: Playing in the SEC [for Auburn], we faced a lot of guys with power arms on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. For straight [velocity], I faced Sonny Gray [at Vanderbilt]. Even as a freshman, he's bringing 100, 101. Guys came in and basically they just challenged you -- here it is, hit it. Chris kind of reminded you of one of those guys. He had that confident persona about him. But he had that long, lanky body type and that delivery where it didn't seem like it was taught. He just has that gift that, especially from the left side, was just very rare.
JOHN GARNER, CAPE COD LEAGUE DIRECTOR OF BROADCASTING: The guy he reminded me of a lot, in terms of build and stuff and confidence and intensity on the mound, was Andrew Miller. Those are the two best pitchers I've seen in my 17 years of following the league really up close and personal. The difference was Miller was so much more highly touted once he got here. Both were gangly left-handers with electric stuff, Sale coming from a much smaller school in Florida Gulf Coast. I don't know how many people knew about him before he got here. I had a bird's-eye view of both, and they reminded me of each other.
RUTLEDGE: It was so fun to play with him because he was just completely overpowering in that league. No one could hit him. He was throwing more of an overpowering fastball with a lot of movement, and his changeup was pretty filthy. He got the slider later.
It was a stark difference from the previous summer. After posting a 3.47 ERA as a freshman reliever at Florida Gulf Coast University, Sale went to Wisconsin to pitch for the La Crosse Loggers of the Northwoods League. It was there that he lowered his arm slot and honed the unique delivery that became his trademark. As a sophomore, he was a full-time starter and posted a 2.72 ERA with 104 strikeouts in 89⅓ innings, the prelude to his arrival on the Cape.
HOSTETLER: We talked to one of our scouts that covered that [Northwoods] league and saw him there, and he said his stuff was 89-92 [mph]. When I saw him in the Cape, it was 90-95. I think just the physical maturity was huge for him. He adopted a little more deception. It was big.
"Andrew Miller, when he was here, he didn't pitch for me, but my guys would come back and say, 'That slider's filthy' and 'Oh God, we've got to face Miller again.' [Tim] Lincecum's curveball, when he was here -- the year that Sale threw for me, it was like that. Guys came back and said, 'This guy is unhittable.'" Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox coach Scott Pickler
SALE: I had a much better idea of who I was and what I needed to do. When I went up to the Northwoods League, I came out of the bullpen my first appearance and then I was a starter for a while, and then I started not doing so well and I went down to the bullpen. I was kind of bouncing around. When I went to the Cape, I knew I was a starter. That was kind of solidified, and I could just refine my skill set and just get better as a pitcher.
PICKLER: Right away from day one, he threw strikes from that arm angle that he had. And from day one, when I'd go coach third base, I would say 60 percent of those third basemen would say, "Coach, this guy is so nasty on the mound. I don't want to have to face this guy." Andrew Miller, when he was here, he didn't pitch for me, but my guys would come back and say, "That slider's filthy" and "Oh God, we've got to face Miller again." [Tim] Lincecum's curveball, when he was here -- the year that Sale threw for me, it was like that. Guys came back and said, "This guy is unhittable."
GARNER: He was a great pitcher that summer, but he was also, off the field, really tremendous. They have an award for the intern that collects the most money during the season in the 50/50 raffle, the Y-D Red Sox do, and he won it. [Editor's Note: Pitchers assist the interns when they're available; even in limited duty, Sale outsold everyone.] So his picture was on the [team's] website during the entire offseason as the player who earned the most money. Sale, with his personality and probably his intensity, got it done. Give him a job and he gets it done.
RUTLEDGE: We played a lot of mini golf. I think he's good at regular golf, but we only played mini golf and he was good at that. He was a funny guy then, and it's been fun to spend time with him again years later and see that he hasn't changed at all. He's very competitive but also keeps things loose. There are times where he will be cracking jokes before a game. He has a good feel for all that and always has.
PICKLER: In between starts, he was a little bit of a character, had a lot of fun with his teammates, always had a smile on his face. Just fun-loving. Some guys, if it's not their day to pitch, they go sit in the pen. He was with the position players in the dugout, pumping guys up. Loved the attitude. And his host family loved him. Our trainer's dad hosted him -- [John] "Doc" Serijan. And Doc talks to him all the time. Even when [Sale] was with the White Sox, he'd come to Boston and Doc would go up there.
SALE: My host dad, I talk to him probably once a week, once every other week. He has a house right there on the lake, like, up on a hill. It was the best. He had a huge TV. I played "Tiger Woods" for hours on that thing. He's one of the most genuine people you'll meet in your life.
All-Star showcase
Sale was 4-2 with a 1.34 ERA through his first 47 innings, making him an easy choice to represent the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the All-Star Game, which returned to Fenway for the first time in 22 years.
SALE: It was my first time ever playing in a big league stadium, and then having it be at Fenway was even cooler. It wasn't sold out, but I mean, there were a lot of people there, probably the most I'd ever played in front of at the time. [Editor's note: The announced attendance was 14,317.] You just try to drown it out. You always try to tell yourself it's the same game no matter where you're at. But it definitely can be a little overwhelming.
RYAN CUNEO, WEST DESIGNATED HITTER: I hadn't faced him before. I had heard about him. Everybody was talking about him. My first at-bat, I walked. I'm watching him warm up and I'm like, "Oh, great. Here's my opportunity in the Cape Cod League All-Star Game to showcase my stuff, and I've got this huge thrower, hard lefty coming at me, this ungodly creature coming to the mound. I'm sure he's pumped up. He's going to be throwing as hard as he can. Just great." But it was fun.
It took two pitches for Sale to get Cuneo to ground out to first base in his next at-bat. A University of Delaware product, Cuneo became a 20th-round draft pick of the Chicago Cubs and spent three seasons in the minor leagues.
"It was my first time ever playing in a big league stadium, and then having it be at Fenway was even cooler. It wasn't sold out, but I mean, there were a lot of people there, probably the most I'd ever played in front of at the time. You just try to drown it out. You always try to tell yourself it's the same game no matter where you're at. But it definitely can be a little overwhelming."Chris Sale
CUNEO: Coming from the left side, and I'm a lefty, you pick up the ball but you see it so late. Everything gets on you so quickly because of that long, wiry frame. Those guys that throw hard that have good breaking balls that are quiet [with their delivery], I don't want to say they're easier, but it's a more relaxed at-bat. But when you've got somebody with that funky, unique delivery, it just adds another element. It's incredible the action on his fastball. And the slider looked like it was going to hit me in my hip and then it was on the outer third [of the plate]. I'm sitting there, coming from a midlevel Division I program and seeing a lot of good arms in the Cape, and in that moment I walked away from that at-bat and I thought, "Oh my God, this kid is a big leaguer right now."
Sale struck out Cody Stanley, a catcher from UNC Wilmington, on three pitches, the last of which was clocked at 95 mph, according to a recap by Baseball America. Fletcher was next. A few years later, Fletcher's sister married Gordon Beckham, Sale's teammate with the White Sox. Fletcher, who spent six seasons in the minors before leaving baseball for a career in the music industry, grounded to shortstop.
SALE [laughing]: I didn't remember I faced him. That's funny. Small world.
FLETCHER: Before that All-Star Game, I had actually faced him in Y-D, so going into it, I kind of had my own little personal scouting report, I guess. He was just one of those guys that you saw on the bump that you knew he just had stuff that's electric. He had kind of a slingshot thing in his mechanics. You didn't see the ball well coming out of his hands. It kind of just shot out and got on you really quick. It's pretty incredible. We always talk about watching him and it's always referred to as "video game stuff." It's pretty unreal.
HOSTETLER: What I remember is I saw a fastball and a slider, and it was like, this is better that what I've seen in our big league team. I mean, the ball exploded out of his hand. It was almost like guys didn't see the baseball. It was such a late reaction. It was pretty special.
SALE: It happened quick. It was over before I knew it. I got a chance to soak it in while I was there, though, and enjoy the experience as a whole.
Two innings later, with the rain getting heavier, the game was called with the West leading 3-0. In the Cape League tradition, an MVP was named for both teams. The East had only one hit. Sale was the lone bright spot. The game recap by Baseball America called him "the most impressive pitcher in the game for either team."
SALE: I think that's the reason that I got what I got, because we only played, like, five innings. There wasn't a whole lot that happened in the game. It was kind of like winning it by default almost.
GARNER: We obviously had to pick a pitcher because nobody scored a run for the East. But he was the most dominating. He got the side out the quickest. I think he was clocked at 96, if I remember correctly. It was easy. He was the most dominant pitcher for the East, for sure.
PICKLER: They allow the pro scouts to help us pick the MVP, so they obviously saw something that night that said this guy is pretty special.
HOSTETLER: I saw him two weeks before that, but I think it was seeing him do it in a big league stadium that kind of made it real. I know it sounds weird, but it really made it seem like, OK, I can picture this skinny, odd-looking dude doing it in our stadium now that I've seen it there [at Fenway]. It didn't seem college-esque anymore.
The aftermath
Sale finished the summer with a 1.47 ERA, 57 strikeouts and nine walks over nine starts and was crowned the Cape's top pitcher.
HOSTETLER: He was the talk of the whole league that summer. It was like, "Did you see that guy?" A lot of scouts stayed over the week after [the All-Star Game] to see him pitch at Y-D. I saw him again that following week and then saw him in the fall, and that was the end of it until the spring when he started back up again [in college].
SALE: I went to Florida Gulf Coast. I didn't play against a lot of those guys that went up to the Cape. I think I was kind of naive to the whole process. I just went up there and played baseball and didn't really pay attention to the other things going on other than just playing the game. It seems to have worked well for me. Because it can engulf you when you start thinking about, "Are there scouts here?" You start pitching for the wrong reasons. You're almost playing for numbers, and that's not a very good way to play.
"I walked away from that at-bat and I thought, 'Oh my God, this kid is a big leaguer right now.'" Ryan Cuneo on facing Chris Sale in the Cape Cod League All-Star Game
PICKLER: I talk to scouts a lot. They want to know makeup on our kids and everything else. Every time I talked to those guys, I said, "You're making a mistake if you don't take Chris in the first round." I just said, "Hey, this guy's for real." I've had two guys like that -- Buster Posey and Chris Sale. I think I've had 88 guys go to the bigs, and I couldn't tell you 15 were going to go. But I could tell you that Posey and Sale were for real.
As a junior at Florida Gulf Coast, Sale went 11-0 with a 2.01 ERA and led the nation with 146 strikeouts. Hostetler never believed Sale would fall to the White Sox at No. 13 overall, but amid concerns over his unorthodox delivery and overall durability, he was there for Chicago to draft in the first round. The White Sox called him up to the big leagues less than two months later to pitch out of the bullpen.
PICKLER: The very next August [in 2010], I get a call from Chris Sale. He's like, "You know what I was doing a year ago?" I said, "Yeah, we were getting ready to go to the playoffs." He goes, "Nope. I was begging you to work a camp [at Y-D] for $30 a day because I needed the money." And he said, "I just wanted you to know that I pitched last night. Not going to pitch for the next four days. But every one of those days I'm going to make $2,400."
FLETCHER: I actually finished up my last year in the White Sox organization and got to face him one more time. He was coming back off a rehab [in 2014 from a flexor muscle strain], throwing some sides and having some batters step in. It was one of those things where I always knew this guy had so much potential that I wanted to see where he ends up. When I saw him again, the kind of movement he had on his ball, the cut, his slider was sharp. There was just a lot of different aspects that contributed and molded what he is today.
CUNEO: I never faced him again. I remember wanting to just because it was such a challenge. I'm sure guys now don't feel that way. They probably don't want to see him ever.
SALE: It's funny. My parents were cleaning out one of their closets at the house recently and found some old pictures of me pitching actually at that [Cape] All-Star Game. I have them at my house in Boston.
CUNEO: My dad lives up in Boston. A few weeks ago, Sale was going for that strikeout record [at least 10 Ks in nine consecutive starts], and [New England Sports Network] showed a clip of Chris' time in the Cape and they showed the at-bat when I was facing him. My dad is like, "Hey, I just saw you on TV." I just thought, that's crazy. Somebody told me it was on Instagram or something and sent it to me and said, "Hey, take a look at this. I think it was you." I'm like, "Yeah, it was." My path went a different way. I got drafted and had a pretty good minor league career and a few injuries and it ended. But being able to tell that story for me is special.