Both Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox have sunny outlooks on the cloud of doom and gloom that hovers again over the left-hander’s mildly irritated pitching shoulder.

For the sake of the glory of Sale’s career and this Red Sox season, let’s hope they’re right and that with this latest return to the 10-day disabled list, he misses only a few starts before returning fresh as a daisy by October.

Let’s also acknowledge that this second setback in barely two weeks counts as a major concern.

Even with the Sox chipper quotient sky high, that can’t mask the reality that their plan to protect and conserve Sale this season has gone awry.

That doesn’t mean the plan was a poor one. It just means that even the best-laid plans don’t have much of a chance when time and wear-and-tear catch up, as they always do, to even the best pitchers.

The Red Sox tried their best to protect Sale. Their noble effort is not over, but to date it was not enough – and nobody can quite say why it wasn’t.

“I think we took all the right steps but just kind of like, sometimes you’re going to run into situations like this,” said Manager Alex Cora. “Just like with Steven (Wright) and with Dustin (Pedroia), although that’s a lot different because of the procedures they went through. But we can’t predict the future.

“It just happened and we’ll see where we go. But like I said, if he misses one, two, three (starts), we’re OK. We’re fine. This is more about the player, honestly. We’ve been trying to take care of this guy since Nov. 2 or 3 and we will keep doing that.”

Sale was about as glum as he was back on July 31, when he held a trade-deadline day press conference to talk about that case of mild shoulder irritation. He said this time there’s “a little bit less in the pain region and mobility range than last time, so that’s a good sign.”

He spoke again about how he has the utmost faith in the club’s trainers and strength and conditioning coaches, and he would do whatever they said he needed to do to get back as quickly as possible.

He came back on Aug. 12 in Baltimore and was brilliant: Five scoreless innings in which he allowed one hit, struck out 12 and walked nobody.

He was on track to pitch Sunday, with the double bonus of two off days on the schedule that would give him even a better chance to pitch deeper and maybe even better than last time.

But as Sale said, his shoulder “just didn’t bounce back. It wasn’t really responding the way we wanted it to, and given kind of where we are, it was kind of the right call to give it some rest and stay on top of it.”

Sale said he’s “quite miserable” about his situation, but he wouldn’t pout around “the best team that’s ever walked the planet.”

But he was as helpless as the team was in grasping how and why this happened.

“Unfortunately it’s just one of those things – it’s time,” said Sale. “You run into some things like this, not only in baseball and in sports but in life. There’s probably a silver lining. I haven’t found that yet but I will.

“I’m going to do what I need to do and hopefully jog out to that mound sooner rather than later.”

The club didn’t administer an MRI on Sale’s shoulder the first time he got hurt because, as the Red Sox president and CEO, Dave Dombrowski, said then, “not necessary – it’s clear cut.”

It’s still clear cut. Sale said he still has strength and stability in his shoulder. Thus, no need for an MRI.

“He’s been going through a lot of tests and we’re very comfortable with the results,” said Cora. “If it doesn’t go the way we feel it’s going to go, then we’ll do something else.”

So for now, no MRI and no change in treatment from last time.

The Red Sox will give Sale and his shoulder all the rest that’s needed. They thought he had enough rest last time, but despite the performance in Baltimore they were off on their estimate.

They’ll try to get the timing just right this time.