Today's Three Thing: Chris Sale dominates Mets in series-clinching 5-0 win
The trio of Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto were hitless in 12 at-bats with five strikeouts tonight
The Atlanta Braves took down the New York Mets 5-0 in Truist Park on Wednesday night to clinch the series ahead of tomorrow’s finale
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
With the way Chris Sale pitched in this one, the game was put away in the first inning.
Ronald Acuña Jr.hit a first-pitch homer to lead off the game, the 36th of his career and the 15th time that it was on the very first pitch, but the offense wasn’t done there.
Alex Verdugo singled, Austin Riley walked, and both advanced a base when Matt Olson grounded out to first base. The second run of the inning then scored when Mets catcher Luis Torrens stopped a rolling ball with his facemask, being charged with an error and giving all runners a free base.
This is Rule 5.06(b), Subsection (3): Each runner, other than the batter, may without liability to be put out, advance one base when:
(E) A fielder deliberately touches a pitched ball with his cap, mask or any part of his uniform detached from its proper place on his person. The ball is in play, and the award is made from the position of the runner at the time the ball was touched.
Marcell Ozuna added a sacrifice fly to bring in Riley, who advanced to third on the catcher’s error, giving the Braves their second straight game with a three-run inning.
Today’s Player of the Game
It’s obviously Chris Sale.
The tall lefty went 8.2 innings in this one, being pulled in the 9th at 116 pitches after Brandon Nimmo’s checked swing single came off the bat at 63.8 mph but fell in shallow left field for a single. Had Sale gone the distance, it would have been his first complete game since 2019.
Sale only had 13 whiffs and a 29% CSW in this one, but it was clear that the Mets had no answer for the reigning NL Cy Young winner. He got nine whiffs and nine more called strikes on his slider, including both Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto flinching at front-door sliders that they thought were going to hit them and landed in the zone for strikes. Because of the obvious focus on guarding against the slider - New York put 15 of them in play - Mets hitters weren’t ready for the fastball. On 24 swings, Sale got four whiffs, four put into play, and sixteen foul balls. When you add in the 12 called strikes, Sale’s heater had a 33% CSW and was actually his best-performing pitch of the day.
The win lowers Sale’s season ERA to 2.52 and he’s been even better recently: 4-1 with a 1.14 ERA in his last seven starts. He’s now second to Paul Skenes (1.78) in ERA in the National League, and his 114 punchouts are second in the Senior Circuit in strikeouts to MacKenzie Gore’s 119. While he has a way to go to catch Skenes, Sale’s now a legit contender to be the oldest back-to-back Cy Young winner if he can chase down Skenes and get the repeat. UPDATE: I, somehow, forgot about Randy Johnson and his four consecutive Cy Young awards from ages 35-38.
Honorable mention to Ozzie Albies, who picked up his 400th career XBH in today’s game. He’s the thirteenth member of the franchise to reach that milestone.
What You’ll Be Talking About (other than Sale)
It brings me no joy to point out the offensive futility in this one.
Yes, Atlanta scored five runs. But let’s talk about how they did it.
The first run of the game came on Ronald’s solo shot. The second was a Luis Torrens error and the third was on a sacrifice fly.
In the second inning, the Braves could have added on - Ozzie Albies had a leadoff triple.1
But after that? Michael Harris popped out to third base, Nick Allen lined out to second base, and then they pitched around Ronald Acuña Jr. He saw five pitches, with only one of them being even remotely close enough to the zone where Ronald could foul it off. Alex Verdugo then ground out to first base, stranding Ozzie on third.
A similar sequence happened in the 4th. After a leadoff strikeout, Ozzie doubled, but Harris grounded out (moving Ozzie to third). Ozzie then scored on a Nick Allen walk, but only thanks to a wild pitch (again, thanks for your efforts, Luis Torrens). Ronald flew out to end the inning.
The Braves scored five runs on seven hits in this one, but they were also 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six on base. New York’s catcher gifted them two runs with an error and a passed ball, while they scored one more on a sacrifice fly and two on solo shots.
“If we get two run-scoring errors from the opposing catcher and our starter goes 8.2 scoreless, we can win easily,” may have worked today, but it’s not a sustainable game plan. The offense needs to be better.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s going for the sweep tomorrow night - why this isn’t a day game, since both teams are traveling after, I don’t know. Maybe MLB made an exception because it’s East Coast travel? Atlanta’s heading to Miami after the series wraps, while New York’s heading to Pittsburgh.
Spencer Strider (1-5, 4.35) takes the mound opposite Clay Holmes (7-3, 2.87) at 7:15 PM ET.
Yes, I know we just wrote about him being bad. Slander works, okay?