I planted a Cleveland Sage last spring, and it made it through the summer well, growing from a 5g container to about 4' across and bloomed mid to late summer. I pruned part of it a bit towards the end of the summer since it was starting to look straggly and some leaves were dying (Sept-ish) and those stems bounced back lushly fairly quickly. I cut back more of it about a month later, since that part wasn't looking great, but instead of bouncing back, those branches have continued to lose leaves and now look completely dead.

I figured it was because it was headed into winter, so didn't think much of it, but now the good side has some new growth on it, but the bad section is still very sad. Do I need to give it more time, or should I cut back those branches? I had two other sages that were planted last year, but they didn't make it through the summer and had similar issues with entire branches going kaput.

Few bits of info:

• I'm in Oakland, CA so it's fairly warm and while we did get a lot of rain in Dec, it's been dry since then.
• It's on drip irrigation right now, about 1x a week.
• It's on the north side, so had been shaded most of the winter, but it's getting morning sun now and the summer is full sun.
• Soil was very clay so it was augmented a lot when things were planted last year.

Attached are a few photos - full plant, new growth, and some not great looking branches.