DENVER -- Chris Sale continued his dominance against the Rockies on Saturday, mastering the challenging hitter-friendly Coors Field while earning his first career win in Colorado as the Braves breezed to a 9-1 win.
Sale went seven innings and allowed one run on three hits and three walks while striking out a season-high 11, including seven of the final nine batters he faced.
“I felt like my focus was raised, especially after that inning that just kind of got away from me a little bit,” Sale said, referencing his back-to-back walks to open the fifth. “I really just focused on getting back into my mechanics and just pouring in the strikes.
“The offense blew this game open. They did a hell of a job. I didn't even throw a pitch tonight, and we had a 2-0 lead, so you want to do right by them. These guys work hard to get runs on the board. It's my job to kind of shut down innings and keep the train moving.”
The Braves took the early lead on a two-run homer from Drake Baldwin in the first inning. Baldwin hit an RBI single to center in the second, laced a run-scoring double to right in the fourth, and walked in the sixth before making his first out in the ninth and finishing the game a triple shy of a cycle.
“Not too many triples in my career,” Baldwin said, noting he had two last year. “This is definitely the park to do it, but I didn't get the opportunity. Obviously, I was running to third if I [hit the ball].”
The Braves also showed up on defense, with center fielder Mauricio Dubón running an Ezequiel Tovar drive to the wall as he crashed into it face-first, leaving an imprint of his eye-black on the wall.
“When you see guys putting it on the line like that, you have to respect that,” Sale said. “It fires me up.”
The Braves added on throughout the game, scoring once in the second and plating three runs in the fourth on a walk, three hits and a sac fly. They added late insurance with a fifth-inning two-run homer 438 feet to center from Austin Riley and a 414-foot solo shot from Matt Olson in the ninth.
It was Olson’s 11th round-tripper, tying Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead.
Sale is 4-0 over his last four starts, throwing 26 innings and allowing three runs in the span. His pitch count over his last four starts is 97, 101, 100 and 102 on Saturday.
“He's a freak,” manager Walt Weiss said. “He's a Hall of Famer, and those guys are just different. That's what he's been doing pretty much his whole Major League career.”
The lone run against Sale came in the bottom of the third when Kyle Karros hit a leadoff single and Jordan Beck doubled down the left-field line to get the Rockies on the scoreboard.
Sale improved to 2-1 with a 1.44 ERA (31.1 IP, 5 ER) in six career appearances (four starts) against the Rockies. He is 1-1 with a 1.56 ERA at Coors Field, allowing three earned runs on 10 hits and four walks with 24 K’s across 17 1/3 innings.
He is now 6-1 overall – the most wins in the Majors – with a 2.14 ERA through seven starts. He's pitched at least six innings in six of his outings and has allowed more than one run just once.
“There's not a lot of true aces in the game, and he's one of them,” Weiss said. “It's always a great day when he's on the mound for us. He's taken the mound in some rubber matches, and when he's on the mound, we just feel like we're going to win the game.”
Sale’s win secured the Braves’ 10th series win of the season, with their only other series a split in Arizona (April 2-5), marking the first time in franchise history the team has opened a season with 11 consecutive series without a defeat. At 24-10, they tied the 1969 and 1998 Braves for the franchise record for most wins through 34 games.
Saturday marked Sale’s 400th career game and his 319th start. He logged his 150th career victory last Sunday against the Phillies. His five victories through the end of April were the most by a Braves starter prior to May since Tom Glavine went 5-0 in 2000.
“My mentality was just go compete,” Sale said of his outing. “If these guys are laying it out there every single day, on my day I better go out there and show up.”