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Chris Sale regained his ace form in Atlanta

Theo

Pay from the start

Anthopoulos was certainly taking a risk, but the Braves had learned the hard way in each of the last two years when it came to lacking rotation depth come playoff time. Unfortunately, the Braves lost expected 2024 ace Spencer Strider (elbow) for the season after just two starts, making that foresight from Anthopoulos pay off right from the start.

Sale enjoyed his first campaign in a Braves uniform with back-to-back starts against last year’s NLCS contenders. His season debut came in Philadelphia, where he held the Phillies to two runs while striking out seven in 5.1 innings. Sale essentially repeated that effort with another 5.1 innings against the Diamondbacks in Atlanta on April 7, allowing two runs and striking out six.

Sale extended things in his next start at Miami. However, after allowing five earned runs on six hits and three walks against one of the league’s weakest offenses, understandable questions arose. Sales responded to them.

Become an ace again

In four starts since the loss to the Marlins, which remains his only one of the season thus far, Sale has faced four different clubs that currently hold winning records. As of this writing, three of them rank in the top half of MLB in runs per game, and two rank in the top eight.

Sale went 4-0 during that stretch, hitting a 1.80 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in 25.0 innings. Perhaps even more impressive is his ridiculous 32 against 3 K/BB. His elite metrics, including 32.3 K%, 16.2 SwStr%, 40.5 Chase%, and 69.0 Contact% (79.5 Z-Contact%), provide further insight into Sale’s dominance these last time.

Fittingly, Sale made a strong mark to his re-emergence when he faced the Red Sox – a franchise with whom he spent seven years and won a World Series – last Wednesday night in Atlanta. The 35-year-old left-hander completely stifled the Sox, shutting them out over six frames while giving up six hits and a walk and a record 10 punchouts. It was Sale’s first double-digit game since September 16 last year and fourth since 2019.

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