Back in his old home, Chris Sale performs like his old self

CHICAGO — Chris Sale has pitched 119 games at Comiskey Park/Guaranteed Rate Field during his career, 78 of them starts. Forty-four times he has earned the victory.

It’s hard to believe any previous win came with a greater sense of relief than No. 44.

Seven starts into the new season, Sale finally kicked that flashing zero out of the win column, and he did it in rather encouraging fashion Friday night, pitching six shutout innings and striking out 10 against his former team in the Red Sox’ 6-1 win.

“I feel like I’m back on track,’’ he said, “and finally helping this team win ballgames.’’

He threw 104 pitches, 70 for strikes. His fastball averaged 93.1 miles per hour, topping out at 96.5. He walked just one, allowed three hits, and hit the 10-strikeout mark for the second time in his last three starts. He now has 28 strikeouts in his last 18 innings. He’s allowed just 12 hits and four earned runs in that span (2.00 ERA).

He may not look exactly like his old self, but what we saw Friday was at least a decent facsimile. He said afterward he made some changes over the last week, but was vague about what they entailed.

“I’ve gotten back to doing some things that I used to do and things that made me successful,’’ he said. “I changed a couple of things to focus on what made me successful in the past.’’

Mechanics?

“Just pitching,’’ he said. “Just pitching stuff.’’

The first-inning scenario could not have been much better for Sale, who was making his third career start against the White Sox, the team with which he spent the first seven seasons of his career. Before the White Sox even batted, the Red Sox had already scored more runs for Sale than they had in any previous start this season.

Rafael Devers, whose ninth-inning error Thursday night on what should have been a routine out was a catalyst in the White Sox’ walk-off win, got a measure of redemption with a three-run homer off starter Reynaldo Lopez in the first inning. The young third baseman had entered the game with the same number of homers as Sale had wins. The Red Sox had not scored more than two runs for Sale in any of his previous six starts.

Sale did not squander Devers’s gift. The White Sox did not manage their first hit until Yoan Moncada’s one-out single in the fourth. It looked like Sale might be tempting trouble in the fifth inning, when Jose Rondon doubled into the right field corner and Wellington Castillo got hit by a pitch. But Sale struck out the side, getting Ryan Cordell looking at a slider, then Adam Engel and Leury Garcia swinging.

Staked to a 6-0 lead after Michael Chavis’s 459-foot Sheboygan-bound home run in the top of the sixth, he ended his night in the bottom half with a punctuating strikeout of Moncada.

Afterward, Red Sox manager Alex Cora offered a convincing one-word answer when asked if this was the best he’s seen Sale this year. “Yes.’’

Sale was good in his last start, when he pitched seven innings, threw a season-high 111 pitches, and allowed two earned runs (four total) in a 5-2 loss to the Rays. But good is a low baseline for a pitcher of Sale’s magnitude and accomplishment.

This is a 30-year-old, prime-of-career lefthander who has finished in the top six in the American League Cy Young voting each of the last seven seasons. He’s made seven straight American League All-Star teams. He’s received Most Valuable Player votes the last four years.

Aces, especially ones with lucrative new contracts, are supposed to be better than good, and they’re sure not supposed to tote a 6.30 earned run average into May.

It’s too soon to say he’s back, but he is trending the right way — hey, that ERA is now below 6.0. There’s still some mystery about why the radar gun no longer lights up with digits in the upper 90s when he’s on the mound. Sale, who threw just 31⅓ innings after July 27 last season while trying to overcome inflammation in his left shoulder, wouldn’t be the first pitcher to return to good health but permanently lose a few ticks of velocity after an injury.

It’s well-documented how the Red Sox have taken the precautionary approach to building up Sale this year. But Cora has noted the last two days that this is the time Sale really got hot last year, with a May 6 start against Texas in which he whiffed 12 Rangers.

All of the questions are not yet answered with Sale. He might need to pull a Johnny Vander Meer (back-to-back no-hitters) just to have a shot at an eighth straight All-Star appearance. The velocity still does not electrify.

But Friday night, back where his career began, back where he became one of the best pitchers in baseball, he provided his first clues of this season that he could be that guy again soon.

Sometimes you have to go away from home to find yourself. Sale might have done it coming back to his old one.