You can't even get the thesis right.
1. Sale has alternated great and horrible starts since August 1. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=10603&position=P LOOK AT THAT GAME LOG AND TELL ME IT'S NOT A THING.
2. Sale has a history of wearing down over the course of the season.
3. Some posters think his innings may need to be managed in the 2nd half of the season.
4. Having Sale pitch a full 8 innings against a hapless O's lineup with a large lead is just dumb no matter what. After 5 innings, the Sox were up 6 - 0. There was little reason to keep trotting him out. The bullpen was firing on all cylinders at that time.
That one game is just indicative of Farrell not managing the situation well. It's not the sole reason he pitched bad last night.
If the Sox and Yanks wind up tied—and somewhere, you can bet Rob Manfred is praying for this—they would play a one-game tiebreaker in the Bronx to determine the division champion, with the loser most likely winding up as the host of the wild card game.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/09/22/american-league-playoff-race-team-entropy?utm_campaign=si-mlb&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_twitter_si
I understand your point, but think the 9th inning didn't have to do with anything except pitch count. If he didn't get to 300 by the end of the 8th, I think he would have still not pitched the 9th.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=10603&position=P&type=4&gds=&gde=&season=2017
Because he was at 111 pitches. He hasn't thrown 120 in a game all year.
JBJ is in a sucky stretch he won't pull out of. Pedroia and Nunez are injured. Hanley is terrible right now. Moreland is just mediocre, it's all he'll ever be.
JBJ 2017
April - May: BABIP 220 OPS 669
May 30th - July 4th: BABIP 412 OPS 1029
July 5th - Sept: BABIP 263 OPS 598
It looks like he'll continue on the one hot month per year path.
I'm not sure it's about the k's. I think Sale just thinks he's a warrior who should pitch 125 pitches every 5 days no matter what. It's up to Farrell to manage Sale and he's doing a poor job at it.
Eck and Remy had a lot to say about that decision too. Their point was that you couldn't learn anything about Nunez's knee when Nunez jogged down the 3b line to show that he was ok. It's baffling that he wouldn't just talk him out of staying in and say "we need you for the playoffs."
Sale already had an antagonistic relationship with ownership going back to the Adam Laroche nonsense. I think he just hated the culture there. I can't blame him for that.