Roll out the red carpet at Fenway Park because Chris Sale is coming back. Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora has revealed that the hard-throwing ace will be making his much-awaited return to the big league mound next weekend against the Baltimore Orioles, as noted by Deven Yee of NESN.

Alex Cora announced that Chris Sale will be returning to Fenway Park to make his season debut against the Orioles next Saturday. Sale has been dominant in his five rehab starts, posting a 1.35 ERA and 35 strikeouts over 20 innings pitched.

The Boston Red Sox could use a boost right now, as they have fallen back in the race to the top of the American League East division. As of the moment, the Red Sox are three games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays with a 65-48 record. Over their last 10 games, the Red Sox have gone 2-8 which coincided with the Rays’ much hotter 7-3 stretch over the same span.

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Back in July 1st, the Red Sox had the highest probability among AL East teams to go to the postseason with an 89.7 percent chance, per FanGraphs. That’s now down to  76.0 percent, as of August 8th.

It’s been a while since Sale last toed the rubber in the majors. That was on August 13, 2019. Sale is set to pitch next Saturday against the Orioles after dealing with an elbow injury in his throwing arm that needed surgery. He went under the knife last year, forcing him to miss the entire shortened 2020 campaign.

The hope for the Red Sox is that Sale will pitch nearly as well as he did before the injury. Since joining Boston in 2017, Sale has accumulated a 35-23 record and a 3.08 ERA to go with 2.57 FIP.