Chris Sale dominates, Braves win 3-0

Chris Sale did Chris Sale things as the Braves get a much needed win.

In many ways Chris Sale has been the story for the Atlanta Braves in 2024, at least on the positive side. Him and Marcell Ozuna probably both have strong cases for it. And he was certainly the story tonight as he pitched seven shutout innings and led the Braves to a 3-0 victory over the Rockies Tuesday night at Truist Park.

Sale was truly dominant. He finished wit 7 inning pitched, 9 strikeouts, 0 walks, 0 runs, and only 6 hits allowed. The only time Colorado even had a threat against him was the 5th, when Ezequiel Tovar hit a ball down the right-field line that Jorge Soler had…trouble with and ended up as a leadoff triple. Sale then got mad and went strikeout, strikeout, fly-out to the next three hitters to get out of the inning unscathed. The fly-out to end the inning was a highlight in itself:

On top of being a dominant night, it was a historic night for Sale as well. He notched his 200th strikeout of the season when he started the top of the third by striking out Colorado’s Drew Romo. Sale became the first left-handed pitcher in franchise history to ever strikeout 200 batters in a season.

Sale is currently the betting favorite to be NL Cy Young award winner and games like tonight only increase those odds.

On the offensive side, it was a pretty slow night for the line-up. Atlanta started the game with the first seven hitters being retired in order. Whit Merrifield then lined a single to right field for their first hit of the game, and Gio Urshela followed that up with an RBI double down the left field line to make it 1-0 Braves. Michael Harris then rolled an infield single that Rockies first-baseman Michael Toglia threw out of the reach of Rockies starter Kyle Freeland, allowing Urshela to score on the play. The Braves had a 2-0 lead after 3.

Atlanta added on in the seventh, though it came with a scary moment. With one out in the seventh, Whit Merrifield was hit in the head with a 96 mph fastball. What made it worse was as he ducked, his helmet began to come off and the ball appeared to hit the exposed part of his neck/head. He was immediately removed from the game with Luke Williams taking over. Urshela then singled to left, advancing Williams to third and Harris drove him in with a sac fly to make it 3-0 Braves.

Joe Jimenez and Raisel Iglesias both pitched perfect innings in the 8th and 9th and the Braves secured the 3-0 victory. Atlanta moves to 75-63 on the season and maintained their 0.5 game lead on the Mets for the final Wild Card spot, with the Mets winning 7-2 over Boston earlier this evening.

The series continues tomorrow at Truist Park with Charlie Morton taking on Bradley Blalock of the Rockies in game two. The game starts at 7:20 ET.