Alex contributed the last comment In the game thread during last night’s 3-0 victory over the Rockies: “Man, Chris Sale is special.”
That’s my recap. Not much more to say than that. “Cy” Sale went seven scoreless, striking out nine and walking no one. Perhaps the most emblematic moment was in the sixth, when Jorge Soler, demonstrating once again why his best position is DH, misplayed a fly ball into a triple. Facing a runner on third with no outs, Sale, unfazed, struck out the next two batters. The third hitter stroked a long fly to deep center, but MHII, demonstrating once again why he ought to win a Gold Glove, tracked it down against the wall.
The two back end guys were similarly brilliant—Jimenez struck out the side in the 8th, and Iglesias set them down 1-2-3 in the 9th on 12 pitches.
The Braves’ hurlers this season have been nothing short of remarkable. Last night was the 22nd consecutive game in which the starters have given up three runs or fewer. And led by Raisel and Joe, the pen has been pretty phenomenal as well.
As to Sale, he is now 16-3, and leads the league in wins, strikeouts, k/9, ERA, bWAR and fWAR, HR/9, and lots of other things with letters and numbers in them.
The pitchers have needed to be remarkable, because the offense has been just as remarkable, but not in a good way. The offense did enough last night, scoring 3 runs on 7 hits.
I said a couple of weeks ago that my favorite baseball is a close pennant race, in which most of the games are low scoring, tight pitching duels. Well, that’s what we are facing as we enter the home stretch. The lead for the final wild card spot is one half game over the Mets, who have won six straight. Truist ought to be rocking when the Mets come to visit in the penultimate series of the season.
On the other hand, I might be even happier—and my blood pressure a little lower– if our guys would reel off a stretch of about 15 of 18 before that series.
Uncle Charlie will try to continue his recent good stretch tonight. Let’s keep it rolling.
Also, remember the Braves are paying Sale just $1.5M this year (Red Sox sent $17M and he has $10M deferred, also picked up by the Red Sox, I believe). Vaughn Grissom has also had a miserable season. A master stroke from Anthopoulos. I don’t think Sale was a part of any of the pitcher trade chatter last year.
Don’t know if we can embed pics in the comments, so here’s a link to a picture of Sale at the postgame press conference. I almost want one of those shirts.
https://x.com/DOBrienATL/status/1831151494634066407
As long as we can hold onto the last Wild Card spot, I don’t care. Give me Sale, Fried, and Lopez in a short series any day and I’d love to see what happens. You wouldn’t have predicted it at the beginning of the year, but this team is starting to look like it’s built like one of those 90’s Braves team: dominant starting pitching with a big 3, good-not-great bullpen, lineup full of “glue” guys with a few middle-of-the-order quality bats, great defense especially up the middle and one bad outfielder (Dye, Klesko, etc.).
I think I read that Ozzie still hasn’t resumed baseball activities, right? Gio’s had a nice glove, but I dunno if I want to start both Gio and Whit in a playoff series.
Something anyone wants it, but may not have a choice.
For his 12 games, I gotta say Urshela’s been good. Great glove at 3B & he’s sitting at .318/.333/.409 w/ some very timely hits so far… exactly what we’d hope for. Sure, he got released for a reason, but sure hope he keeps it up.
GIven what we’ve been thru (catastrophic injuries, offensive underperformance) & where we are now (just a half-game ahead in the playoff picture), I’ll take any post-season scenario. Just get in, roll the dice.
BTW, if the Braves & Mets finish tied for the last WC spot, the head-to-head record (and NOT an extra playoff game) will determine the 6th seed. At the moment, it stands 5-5 with that 3-game series on the horizon.