ATLANTA – Chris Sale’s bid for a second Cy Young Award in three seasons is being blocked by Jacob Misiorowski’s greatness. But the Braves ace is padding his Hall of Fame resume while doing things most pitchers his age have never done.
Sale continued to impress in a 2-0 loss to the D-backs on Friday night at Truist Park. The Braves lefty allowed one run over six innings and exited with a 2.16 ERA, which ranks second among qualified MLB pitchers this year, trailing only Misiorowski’s 1.76.
“Another great job by Chris,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “It's a shame. You want to win those games when he pitches like that.”
What prevented the Braves from doing so?
Well, D-backs starter Brandon Pfaadt allowed two hits over seven scoreless innings. The lone run he has allowed over his past 32 2/3 innings was unearned.
Speaking of earned runs, the one Sale allowed the D-backs initially looked like it would be unearned. Mauricio Dubón was charged with an error when he lost Corbin Carroll’s line drive in the first inning. But the official scorer changed the ruling to a double, meaning the run that scored on a Gabriel Moreno groundout was earned.
Sale was nails the rest of the way. The 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner surrendered consecutive singles to begin the sixth and then struck out each of the final three batters he faced. His final four-seam fastball of this 108-pitch effort was 99.1 mph, his hardest pitch of the night and one of just 14 pitches he’s thrown this hard this year.
This isn’t extraordinary stuff from a 37-year-old pitcher, especially one who was limited to 151 innings because of multiple injuries from 2020-23.
“He’s one of those freaks we come across in this league every once in a while,” Weiss said. “He’s different.”
Sale is one of just seven pitchers of the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to post a 2.20 ERA or better through the first 22 starts of their age 37 or older season. The others are Spud Chandler (1946), Dutch Leonard (1948), Kevin Brown (2003), Roger Clemens (2005), Max Scherzer (2022) and Justin Verlander (2022).
Sale highlighted Friday’s effort with nine strikeouts to run his season total to 160. He ranks eighth in the Majors in this category and has a chance to secure what would be his ninth career 200-strikeout season.
How many pitchers of the Live Ball Era have recorded a 2.20 ERA or better with 150-plus strikeouts through the first 22 starts of an age 37 or older season?
That would now be Sale and Scherzer, who did this in 2022.
“It took a lot of people to get me to this position,” Sale said. “You know my family, some friends, a lot of people in Boston and a lot of people in Atlanta. I definitely appreciate being able to be where I'm at now. I’m just thankful. I’m going to try to ride this wave as long as I can.”