At the age of 37 years and 150 days, Atlanta Braves veteran lefty Chris Sale on Thursday night authored one of the best starts of his sterling career. Adding to the luster of his complete-game shutout is that he did it against back-to-back defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who again boast one of the most potent offenses in Major League Baseball. Here's Sale's night on the mound in the Braves' 1-0 win: That was good for Sale's fourth career shutout and first complete game in more than seven years.
Included in Sale's evening was a 100.1 mph fastball to Shohei Ohtani, which made it the 10-time All-Star's fastest pitch since 2018. In all, Sale earned an impressive 20 whiffs on the night, including 11 in 17 swings with his slider. To that tally, he added another 23 called strikes.
As for Game Score, which is a quick-and-dirty Bill James metric that measures a pitcher's dominance or lack thereof in a given start (50 is average and anything 80 or higher is a gem), Sale in this one had a figure of 88. That's his highest Game Score of the season by a fair margin, and overall it's Sale's highest since he put up a 91 against the Angels on Aug. 8, 2019, as a member of the Red Sox. It took that kind of outing to secure the win against an on-point Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a scoreless effort from the L.A. bullpen.
The only run came on Drake Baldwin's leadoff home run. With the sparkling effort, the 10-time All-Star Sale lowered his ERA for the season to 2.06 with 177 strikeouts and just 28 walks in 144 innings. He's backed it all up with an FIP of 2.18.
Right now, Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers leads the Cy Young chase in the National League, but Sale is in the mix to win the award for the second time in his career. Misiorowski is a -1250 favorite at FanDuel, but Sale (+700) is moving up the odds board after Thursday night's outing. Speaking of Sale's career, he's taken it to another level thanks to his time with the Braves.
He looked to be in decline when he inked a three-year deal prior to the 2024 season (with club options for 2027 and 2028). Instead, Sale has enjoyed a second peak at a time when most pitchers have long been drummed into forced retirement. His first season in Atlanta saw Sale win the Cy Young for the first time in his standout career, and overall, he has a 2.33 ERA and a 5.73 K/BB ratio across 73 starts and one relief appearance for the Braves.
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