Today's Three Things: Sale is Masterful as Offense Bashes Aaron Nola
The Atlanta Braves got another Cy Young-caliber performance from their veteran ace in a series win
The Atlanta Braves won yet another series by taking down the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 in Truist Park on Sunday afternoon.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
Atlanta very quickly staked itself to a 6-0 lead (more on that in a bit), but Philly had an opportunity to get back into the game fairly early in this one.
With two outs in the third inning, Philly started a mini rally against the cruising Chris Sale. Nine-hole hitter Rafael Marchán wore a slider, with Trea Turner quickly getting up 3-0 and then lacing a thigh-high fastball to left (the first hit allowed by Sale in the game). Kyle Schwarber then loaded the bases in a seven-pitch at-bat, fouling off a few in-zone sinkers but mostly being unable to get a good swing on Sale’s stuff.
That was fine with the veteran lefty, as loading the bases brought up Bryce Harper, who was just 2-13 entering this at-bat off of Sale. True to form, Sale carved Harper up, eventually getting him out on a foul tip to strand all three runners and keep Philly off the board.
Philadelphia ended up being held scoreless until the 8th inning, where an Austin Riley fielding error extended the inning and Kyle Schwarber finally got the best of Aaron Bummer, taking him deep for a two-run homer.
(As I discussed on the postcast, I don’t fault Bummer for this for two reasons. The first is that the inning should never have gotten to Schwarber, but Riley’s error likely took an out off the board. The other is that this is the third time Bummer’s been asked to face Kyle Schwarber in the last week, and there’s only so much he can do to keep one of MLB’s best power hitters down. You typically only see the reliever overexposure issue in the postseason, but MLB’s odd scheduling practices mean that it got the Braves here as well.)
Today’s Player of the Game
It’s going to Sale.
The veteran lowered his ERA to 2.31 with six scoreless innings today, allowing only one hit and two walks while striking out nine. Sale finished with 15 whiffs and a 30% CSW with a slightly adjusted pitch mix, swapping out about 10% slider usage for more changeups and sinkers. It’s a good adjustment to make when you face an opposing team for the 2nd straight start, and Philly was arguably even more unsettled against him than they were last week.
Sale also showed why he was the NL’s Gold Glove winner at pitcher early in this one, catching a liner off the bat of Felix Reyes in an act of self-preservation.
Sale’s now at 2,612 career strikeouts, moving him to 28th on the all-time list. He passed five-time All-Star Chuck Finlay today.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The offense that we’ve long dreamt of has arrived, and it’s glorious. Atlanta scored early and often today, taking advantage of struggling starter Aaron Nola.
The Braves put up a three-spot in the first inning in a style reminiscent of the 2023 Atlanta Braves - Ronald Acuña Jr. and Drake Baldwin both singled their way on before Matt Olson launched a three-run homer into The Chop House for an early 3-0 lead.
The homer was Olson’s league-leading 111th day game home run since the 2018 season, 12 more than the next closest hitter in MLB, per Braves PR.
Atlanta then got a leadoff triple from Mauricio Dubón in the 2nd, with Eli White homering to put two more on the board. The Braves then played some small ball for the second inning’s third run, with Acuña walking, stealing 2nd, and being driven in via Baldwin's single to right.
In Atlanta’s amazing 2023 season, they scored a league-leading 146 first-inning runs. Today’s first inning felt like the offense is as close to 2023 as it has ever been.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s today’s Postcast, where I went live over on Locked On Sports Atlanta to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta gets a much-needed off day on Monday before hosting the Detroit Tigers for three this week. While the Braves haven’t announced their starters for the series, Detroit has and it’s a doozy.
Tuesday is former first overall pick Casey Mize, with two-time reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal pitching on Wednesday and free agent signing Framber Valdez getting the ball in Thursday afternoon’s finale.
We’ll see who Atlanta finally decides on and will pass that along when we get it.
UPDATE: Atlanta’s announced Martín Pérez on Tuesday, JR Ritchie on Wednesday, and Bryce Elder on Thursday.