Following up: Nicky Delmonico’s wrist issues lingering

On Tuesday, I was watching Nicky Delmonico swing and miss with greater frequency and wondered whether his wrist was still an issue, given his sudden inability to lift the ball to the pull side.

Given what Rick Renteria told Daryl Van Schouwen, it appears to be the leading factor:

Nicky Delmonico, who was batting .171/.293/.343 in September after getting off to a scorching start, hitting safely in 28 of his first 33 games, is “swinging through some pitches he feels he should be hitting,’’ Renteria said. “I’m sure he’ll pick up.’’ [...]

Renteria said Delmonico had a follow-up injection of cortisone last week, then two days off “to let that stuff kick in, but he’s fine.’’

Is he, though?

Chris Sale continued his severely uneven stretch I wrote about earlier in the week, this time running hot with eight shutout innings against Baltimore on Wednesday. That gives him just five quality starts in his last 10 outings, but he’s allowed just one run total over those five quality starts.

And with 13 strikeouts, Sale became the first American League pitcher to strike out 300 since Pedro Martinez in 1999. Look at the pitch that got it done:

Give him the Cy Young.

Yoan Moncada, who will be tethered to Sale’s success for the foreseeable future, continued his own uneven path with a one-homer, two-strikeout game against Houston on Wednesday, including the only hit off Brad Peacock. Peacock made one of his few mistakes by starting him off with a flat slider, and Moncada both barreled it up and kept it fair.

“Uneven” is ultimately a positive descriptor for a rookie, since that means he’s mixing in a fair amount of good with the rough spots you’d expect. Jose Abreu continues to play the role of proud parent and bat spokesman:

“I just thought he wasn’t using the bats for him to take advantage of his swing,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “These new bats have better balance with the weight and are a little shorter than the other ones. I just did it thinking of him taking advantage of his power, his hands and to feel more freedom in his swing.”