Red Sox LHP Chris Sale on 0–4 Start: 'I Just Flat-Out Stink'

Sale suffered his fourth loss of the season Tuesday against the Yankees.

Chris Sale isn't making excuses for his poor start to the season.

Following the Red Sox' 8–0 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday, Sale offered a blunt assessment of his dreadful performances thus far.

"I just flat-out stink right now," Sale said. "I don't know what it is. When you're going good, it's good. When you're going bad, it's pretty bad."

Chris Sale is making no excuses at this point. Here's the Red Sox ace after their 8-0 loss to the Yankees (@jordansfurn) pic.twitter.com/3lABeZmu9L

— NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSBoston) April 17, 2019

Sale looked strong through the first two innings on Tuesday, with his fastball topping out at 97 mph before DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit plated the Yankees' first two runs in the third. Sale then gave up his fifth home run in 18 innings, when Clint Frazier led off the fourth with a solo shot to right-centerfield.

Remarkably, even with the bad showing Tuesday, Sale's season ERA actually went down, from 9.00 to 8.50, a testament to how uncharacteristically awful he's been. He suffered his fourth loss of the year, matching his total for the entire 2018 season.

Sale called his start to the year the worst stretch of his 10-year career, which has included six consecutive top-5 finishes in AL Cy Young voting, a 2.89 ERA and a 103-62 record coming into the season.

"I've got to find a way to pitch better," Sale said. "This is flat-out embarrassing. For my family, for my team, for our fans. This is about as bad as it gets. I have to pitch better... I'm supposed to pitch into the sixth, seventh, eighth inning, finish games and stuff like that, save our bullpen, cut it off when we're losing and keep winning streaks going. That's not who I've been."

Boston is now last in the AL East. The reigning World Series champions have another game against the Yankees on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. ET.