ATLANTA -- Braves manager Brian Snitker gladly ingested the boos he heard from fans, many of whom quickly switched gears by loudly cheering Chris Sale as he walked off the field one out shy of what would have been his first shutout in six years.
“I was pulling for him more than he was pulling for himself to get that [shutout],” Snitker said.
As Sale handed Snitker the ball with two outs in the ninth inning of a 5-0 win over the Mets on Wednesday night at Truist Park, he thanked his manager for giving him the opportunity to enter the ninth inning, despite the fact he had already thrown 102 pitches and the Braves had a rather comfortable lead.
“I told him, ‘Hey, you gave me a chance, and that's all I really wanted,’” Sale said. “I appreciated that.”
Sale gave the Braves further reason to appreciate his pitching greatness and competitive spirit as he limited the Mets to five hits over 8 2/3 innings. His 116-pitch effort (85 strikes) ended when Brandon Nimmo lofted an opposite-field, two-out single to left field.
This was the 36-year-old pitcher’s longest outing since he threw a shutout against the Royals on June 5, 2019.
“I love having Chris out there, just the attitude that he brings,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. “It’s a bulldog mentality, and it’s fun to play behind him. You can tell he’s giving it everything he’s got, and we feed off of it.”
Sale’s near-shutout, combined with the leadoff homer Ronald Acuña Jr. hit in a three-run first inning, propelled the Braves to a third straight series victory and their sixth win in their past eight games. They’re still six games below .500 (33-39), 11 games behind the first-place Mets – who have lost five straight – and six games out of the final Wild Card spot.
It would be easy to count the Braves out, like it would have been easy to count Sale out after he produced a 6.17 ERA through this year’s first five starts. But he has posted a 1.23 ERA over the 10 starts that have followed, going back to April 30. That’s MLB’s best mark during this span, sitting just ahead of the ones constructed by the Pirates’ Paul Skenes (1.25) and last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner, the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal (1.61).
“I don't think that surprises anybody in here,” said Braves first baseman Matt Olson, who hit his 15th homer to cap the scoring in the seventh. “Everybody knows that name for a reason. Ever since he's stepped foot over here, he's been awesome for us.”
Starling Marte tallied an infield single and advanced to second base on Juan Soto’s soft comebacker in the first inning. No other Mets player reached second base the rest of the night.
So when Sale entered the dugout after the eighth inning and didn’t even make eye contact with Snitker, the veteran skipper knew his ace was ready to fight for the ninth inning.
“What he did was spectacular, even the play he made in the ninth inning,” Snitker said. “My God. Just kind of lends to the legend of what he did.”
Sale’s 108th pitch of a humid summer night in Atlanta resulted in a Soto roller to the left of the mound. Any chance of this rolling into no-man’s land was erased as the 6-foot-6 pitcher dived across the infield grass to secure the ball and record the out.
“I think that might get talked about more than the actual game,” Sale said. “I've already got a couple text messages from some old friends about that. When you're out there and you're just so locked into just doing your job, you’re just trying to get outs any way you can.”
Sale recorded three strikeouts in a perfect ninth inning to secure the 2018 World Series for the Red Sox. He won the NL Cy Young Award last year, and his strong Hall of Fame résumé includes seven other top six finishes in Cy Young Award balloting. He recently reached 2,500 strikeouts in fewer innings than anybody in MLB history.
But did Sale still feel an adrenaline rush as he finished the eighth and prepared for the ninth?
“I mean, it was literally like just cold water running through my body,” Sale said.
Sale’s presence on the mound has created a similar sense of energy as he has spent the past two years making up for the time he missed with injuries from 2020-24 and proving he is one of the best pitchers baseball has seen.
“I think he’s a Hall of Famer,” Riley said. “Anytime you can have a Hall of Famer out there, it’s not a bad thing.”