Sale reached 100 mph for the first time since 2018 and recorded his first complete game since 2019.
Chris Sale Dominates Dodgers With First Complete-Game Shutout Since 2019
Facing a star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers lineup, Atlanta Braves Chris Sale delivered a vintage performance on Thursday evening. The 37-year-old left-hander threw 109 pitches over nine scoreless frames, scattering five hits without issuing a single walk while striking out 11 batters. The outing marked Sale’s fourth double-digit strikeout game of the season and the 95th of his career, placing him seventh all-time in major league history behind Sandy Koufax, who holds 97 such games according to league records.
Energy surged through a sellout crowd of 39,650 fans as Sale returned to the mound for the ninth inning despite relief pitchers warming up in the Atlanta bullpen. Sale stated to reporters after the game that when running out there for the ninth inning, it was hard not to feel that energy pulsing through the stadium.
Braves manager Walt Weiss opted to stick with his veteran starter even after Freddie Freeman opened the final frame with a single. Sale responded by retiring Teoscar Hernández on a popup, getting Alek Thomas out at second on a fielder’s choice grounder by Miguel Rojas, and striking out Alex Call to seal his 17th career complete game and his first since 2019.
Velocity Milestone Against Shohei Ohtani Highlights Pitcher’s Duel
The matchup lived up to its billing as a premier duel between former Cy Young winners and elite arms, with Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto turning in a stellar performance of his own. Yamamoto surrendered just four hits and struck out eight batters over 6 1/3 innings, but a single mistake pitch dictated the game’s outcome.
On Yamamoto’s very first pitch of the night, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin crushed a leadoff home run into the Chop House restaurant behind the right-field wall at Truist Park. That lone run proved sufficient as the franchise matched a feat last accomplished in 1889, when the Boston Beaneaters won a game 1-0 on a leadoff home run.
Sale punctuated his gem by reaching the 100-mph threshold for the first time in eight years. During a third-inning battle against Shohei Ohtani, Sale fired a fastball clocked at 100.1 mph that Ohtani fouled off, according to Statcast data. It marked only the 15th time in the veteran pitcher’s career that he reached triple digits, with his previous instance occurring on July 6, 2018. Sale struck out Ohtani twice on the evening, punctuating the fifth inning by getting the four-time Most Valuable Player to swing through a 99.6-mph fastball.
Walt Weiss, Braves Manager, via The Athletic, noted that it could be seen, explaining that he was attacking from the first pitch—not that he does not usually do that—and that you could see he had a different look in his eye, and while the look in his eye is always pretty good, it was even a little bit different tonight.
Series Sweep Fortifies Atlanta’s National League Standing
The 1-0 victory completed a dominant three-game sweep for the NL East-leading Braves, who improved their record to 79-55 and seized control of the season series 5-1 against the reigning back-to-back World Series champions from Los Angeles. Atlanta entered the week trailing the Dodgers by four games in the race for a first-round bye, but trimmed that deficit to a single game.
Both teams head into weekend series as August draws to a close. The Dodgers travel to Michigan to open a weekend set against the Detroit Tigers, while the Braves prepare to host the Colorado Rockies at Truist Park with starting pitcher Grant Holmes taking the mound.
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