MILWAUKEE -- Jacob Misiorowski grew up admiring Chris Sale.
On Friday afternoon, Sale got an up-close look at why the feeling has started to become mutual.
The two National League Cy Young Award contenders shared the stage at American Family Field, with Misiorowski firing six scoreless innings and Sale doing nearly everything he could to match him in Atlanta’s 2-1 loss to Milwaukee.
“I mean, it seems like he’s kind of in a league of his own this year,” Sale said of Misiorowski. “Probably the most impressive fastball I’ve ever seen.”
Misiorowski has pointed to Sale as one of the pitchers he admired growing up. Now, in a matchup between two of baseball’s best pitchers, the 24-year-old edged the 37-year-old veteran.
But barely.
That might say as much about Sale’s season as anything.
Friday wasn’t necessarily vintage Sale. Milwaukee peppered him for eight hits, his most allowed since June 28, and spent much of the afternoon putting traffic on the bases. Sale didn’t pile up strikeouts, either, finishing with six across six innings.
Yet eight hits became only two runs. Sale didn’t issue a walk. Every hit he allowed was a single. And when his afternoon was finished after 94 pitches, the Braves were still within one swing of turning the game around.
“He’s a warrior,” manager Walt Weiss said. “He’s a true ace. The Brewers did what they do, right? They put the ball in play, and they go first to third, and that’s their game, and they’re good at it. But Sale was great. He always gives us a chance to win every time he’s on the mound.”
That has become one of the defining qualities of Sale’s season.
The dominant outings have been plentiful. He entered Friday with a 2.16 ERA, second only to Misiorowski among qualified Major League pitchers, and has put himself firmly in the conversation for another top-five Cy Young Award finish two years after winning the award.
But there is another form of dominance in what Sale did Friday.
He didn’t have the luxury of cruising through Milwaukee’s lineup. The Brewers kept finding grass, collecting multiple hits in three different innings and forcing Sale to repeatedly operate with runners aboard. Their only breakthrough came in the third, when three singles and a run-scoring groundout produced a 2-0 lead.
They never scored against him again.
Sale worked through the constant pressure and finished six innings without allowing an extra-base hit or a walk. His ERA moved only slightly, from 2.16 to 2.20, and he extended his MLB-leading streak to 20 consecutive starts allowing three earned runs or fewer.
“Every time he goes out on the mound, you expect him to do something great, which is not fair to him, but it’s just the truth,” Mike Yastrzemski said. “That’s how good he is, and how good he can always be.”
Friday also offered a fitting contrast between two pitchers at very different points of their careers.
Misiorowski, 24, is in the middle of a season that has established him as one of the most overpowering pitchers in baseball. His fastball touched triple digits 32 times Friday, topping out at 103.1 mph, and his six strikeouts pushed his Major League-leading total to 216. His ERA dropped to 1.68.
Sale knows something about that kind of dominance.
The 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner has spent the better part of his career as the pitcher younger arms watched and tried to emulate. Misiorowski was one of them. The two have gotten to know each other at the past couple of All-Star Games, and Sale has watched the young right-hander develop from admirer into competitor.
The difference Friday was that Sale’s excellence required a little more work.
“He battled his tail off and gave us everything he had,” Yastrzemski said.
That was enough to keep Atlanta alive until the end. The Braves scratched across a run in the eighth, loaded the bases later in the inning and eventually put the potential tying run at second with two outs in the ninth before Milwaukee escaped.
The Braves lost, and that distinction mattered greatly to Sale.
Asked how he evaluated an outing in which he scattered eight singles across six innings and allowed only two runs, Sale had little interest in searching for consolation.
“I’m pretty black and white,” Sale said. “I like to win. I really don’t care about other numbers.”
Then he took it a step further.
“If I gave up nine runs and we win the game, I’d be in a whole [heck] of a lot better mood than I am right now,” Sale said. “This game really only matters if you win.”
For Sale, that made Friday a bad night.
For the Braves, it was another reminder of something they’ve learned to expect every fifth day.
Even when Sale isn’t at his best, he gives them a chance.