Aug 7, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves beginning pitcher Chris Sale (51) throws in opposition to the Milwaukee Brewers within the first inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Chris Sale will get a possibility to attempt to replicate a standout efficiency on its tenth anniversary Monday evening when the Atlanta Braves kick off a high-stakes, four-game highway collection in opposition to the San Francisco Giants.
The Braves (61-56) and Giants (61-59) start the week separated by 1 1/2 video games within the National League’s crowded wild-card race. San Francisco moved up at Atlanta’s expense when it received two of three in a visit to Georgia final month.
Sale (13-3, 2.75 ERA) pitched the Braves’ lone win in that collection, a 3-1 victory on July 6. He allowed one run on three hits in six innings with two walks and 9 strikeouts.
That wasn’t practically as spectacular as his solely profession go to to San Francisco on Aug. 12, 2014, when the left-hander shut out the Giants on 4 hits with 12 strikeouts over eight innings of a 3-2, 10-inning win for the Chicago White Sox.
The longtime American League pitcher has confronted the Giants simply as soon as since and can take a profession 2-0 report with a 1.80 ERA in three begins in opposition to San Francisco into the collection opener.
Sale’s opposing pitcher within the 2014 sport was Ryan Vogelsong, who retired after the 2016 season.
On Monday, Sale will probably be concerned in a matchup of multi-time Cy Young Award candidates. Sale has completed within the high six of the voting on seven separate events, whereas his opponent, Giants left-hander Blake Snell (2-3, 4.31 ERA), is a two-time winner (2018 and 2023).
Snell will get the ball using a private two-game profitable streak, which incorporates throwing a no-hitter in opposition to the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2, after going winless in his first 10 begins this season. The 31-year-old didn’t pitch within the earlier collection in Atlanta.
He’s by no means overwhelmed the Braves in three profession begins, going 0-2 with a 4.20 ERA.
In their careers which have featured two ERA titles for Snell and eight All-Star choices for Sale, the pitchers have gone head-to-head simply as soon as. That occurred on May 13, 2017, when Sale was pitching for the Boston Red Sox and Snell for the Tampa Bays Rays.
Sale struck out 12 Tampa Bay Rays in seven innings of a 6-3 sport and bought the win. Snell allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings to take the loss.
The Braves and Giants will meet for the primary time since they made a commerce on the deadline final month. Atlanta bought Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson for injured Tyler Matzek and a minor-league infielder Sabin Ceballos.
Soler hit two homers and drove in 4 runs Sunday in opposition to the Colorado Rockies, however the Braves misplaced for the seventh time of their previous eight video games.
Matt Olson, one other Braves participant who will rejoice a homecoming of types together with his return to the San Francisco Bay Area — he performed six seasons for the Oakland Athletics — mentioned his workforce nonetheless has a run in it.
“We have not gotten sizzling but,” he mentioned in Colorado, the place the Braves misplaced two of three this previous weekend. “You by no means know when it is going to occur. We present up day by day with a mindset that it is going to begin right now. We’ll see if we will get sizzling on the proper time.”
Meanwhile, the Giants have received 4 of their previous 5. They’ll need to shrug off the lone lack of the stretch, 5-4 to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
“All the video games depend the identical; it is about profitable as many video games as we will proper now,” Giants supervisor Bob Melvin mentioned in regards to the significance of the Braves collection.
-Field Level Media