BOSTON —  Red Sox ace Chris Sale and assistant pitching coach Brian Bannister logged long hours in the video room after Sale was lit up twice by the rival Yankees recently.

With a few tweaks, the lanky left-hander was picture perfect Thursday night.

Sale righted himself and struck out 13 over eight innings of two-hit ball to lift Boston over the Los Angeles Angels 3-0. He had allowed 14 runs over nine innings during his previous two starts, both against New York, but he bounced back with his 13th double-digit strikeout game this season.

“Just getting back to kind of what I was doing to make myself successful before all this,” said Sale (6-11). “We spent a lot of time this week looking at some things.”

Sale’s brilliance against the Angels merely lowered his season ERA to 4.41.

“This is August, so there’s a lot of question marks for the right reasons, obviously,” Manager Alex Cora said. “At least for today, he looked great.”

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A resurgence by Sale would be welcome news for a Boston club that needs to make up a sizable deficit in order to defend its World Series title.

The Red Sox had lost 9 of 10, not including’s Wednesday’s contest against the Royals that was suspended in the 10th inning with the score tied at 4. That game will be resumed on Aug. 22.

Thursday’s game ran without issue and was over in a tidy 2 hours, 16 minutes.

Boston pulled within 5 1/2 games of the second AL wild card with Tampa Bay and Oakland idle.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do ahead, so (we’re) looking forward to tomorrow,” said first baseman Sam Travis, who hit a go-ahead, two-run homer off starter Dillon Peters in the second inning.

Angels star Mike Trout went 1 for 4 with three strikeouts a day after his 28th birthday. Los Angeles, which fell 10 games out in the AL wild card, suffered its season-high seventh straight loss.

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“This is a tough stretch for us right now,” Trout said.

Sandy Leon tacked on a solo homer in the fifth against Peters (2-1), who gave up three runs and five hits, striking out eight over six innings.

“I made a couple mistakes,” Peters said. “You get beat out of the yard against this team.”

NOTES: Left-hander David Price was placed on the 10-day injured list after an MRI revealed a cyst on his left wrist.

The team announced that the 33-year-old Price was treated with a shot of cortisone in the wrist on Wednesday. Price is 7-5 record with a 4.36 ERA over 21 starts this season.

“The hope is for him to come (back) sooner rather than later, but we don’t have a timetable,” Manager Alex Cora said about Price, who was not made available to address his injury. “We’ll make sure he’s OK, and we’ll go from there.”

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Cora noted that the cyst, classified as a TFCC cyst, was not cancerous or related to any other serious illness.

Price most recently pitched Sunday against the New York Yankees after being reinstated from paternity leave. Price allowed seven runs on nine hits in 2 2/3 innings in New York, falling to 0-4 with a 10.59 ERA in his last four starts.

Cora said Price told him after the game that he “didn’t feel 100 percent” and “felt tight.”

“His last three or four (starts), as far as the location and the action of the pitches, it wasn’t there,” Cora said. “Regardless if he’s throwing 87 or 95 (mph), precision and strikes is his game.”

Price missed 14 games earlier this season with left elbow tendinitis and was plagued by elbow inflammation during the 2017 season.

“Hey, at least we found out,” Cora said. “Whatever people were thinking about if it’s the elbow or something else, at least we know (it’s not). We’ll shut him down for a little bit, and then he’ll be back.”

Right-hander Hector Velázquez was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket to take Price’s spot on the 25-man roster.


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