Chris Sale tosses near complete-game shutout as resurgent Braves clinch series against Mets

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ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves feel good about their chances of winning whenever Chris Sale is on the mound, so imagine how they felt after staking the reigning Cy Young Award winner to a 3-0 lead in the first inning Wednesday against the New York Mets.

Ronald Acuña Jr. homered on the first pitch of the opening inning. That solo shot was all Sale needed as he didn’t give an inch, continuing the dominant stretch of pitching he’s enjoyed by throwing a near complete-game shutout in 5-0 series-clinching win against the NL East-leading Mets.

“I feel like a broken record about him at this point,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson, who homered in the seventh inning, said. “He’s incredible, he competes his a— off every time he’s on the mound. And you saw what he can do out there tonight.”

Sale’s bid for a repeat Cy Young Award was further strengthened with an overwhelming 8 2/3 innings in which he allowed five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in 116 pitches including 85 strikes.

“Hats off to him,” said Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts against Sale.

Sale received a standing ovation from a sold-out crowd at Truist Park as he walked off the field with two out in the ninth, following Brandon Nimmo’s bloop single to left field. He gave the ball to manager Brian Snitker and thanked him for letting him go out to start the ninth, after throwing 102 pitches through eight innings.

After Sale had made a diving defensive stop on a Juan Soto grounder and threw to first base from his knees for the first out of the ninth, then struck out Pete Alonso before the Nimmo hit, Snitker was booed as he walked on the field to make the change.

“It’s a tough position for him to be in, and I get that,” said Sale, who convinced Snitker to let him go back out for the ninth. “Pitch count was up over 100. But I was pretty adamant coming off (after) the eighth inning, and he’s like, ‘You usually don’t do that, so I had to give it to you.’

“But at the same time, he didn’t want to get me up over too many pitches tonight. So I told him, hey, you gave me a chance for it. And that’s all I really wanted, and I appreciated that.”

Raisel Iglesias was brought in to face Luis Torrens, who grounded into a force out to end the game.

There was a murmur after the eighth inning, then a roar in the ballpark when Sale strode to the mound for the ninth.

“He’s like, ‘No, I’m good. I want to do it,’” Snitker said of their brief conversation after the eighth. “I was thinking, well, you’ve earned that right. What he did was spectacular. Even the play he made in the ninth inning, my God, just kind of lends to the legend. Like I say, he’s a pro. And you root for guys like that. And he gets it. In all the situations, he gets it.

“But man, I was probably pulling for him more than he was pulling for himself to get that complete game.”

Sale has 16 career complete games including three shutouts, and the last of each was in 2019, many injuries and a Tommy John surgery ago. For a moment, it looked like he would add to those CG and shutout totals.

“Obviously the crowd gets a little bump, we get a little bump, and then he makes that play on the first batter,” Olson said of the spiked energy level at Truist Park. “Everybody wants him to finish that thing out. But it was 116 pitches? Just couldn’t risk going any deeper. But hell of a game from him.”

Snitker wouldn’t risk going any further with a 36-year-old ace who is critical to the Braves’ chances of turning around their season. Sale understood completely.

Sale lowered his ERA to 2.52 including 1.23 in his past 10 starts, with 82 strikeouts and 19 walks in 66 innings over that span.

“I love when Chris is out there,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said of the lanky left-hander, who complements baseball’s highest-rated slider with a still-formidable upper-90s fastball and pinpoint location. “Just the attitude that he brings and just the bulldog mentality. It’s fun to play behind him.

“You can tell he’s out there giving everything he’s got, and we feed off of it. Love playing behind him.”

First pitch.

Ronald Acuña Jr. was ready 😤 pic.twitter.com/bOFdUk70pY

— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2025

After the Braves rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the eighth inning Tuesday to win 5-4 in 10 innings on Riley’s walk-off sacrifice fly, they led Wednesday from the moment Acuña homered on Paul Blackburn’s first pitch of the first inning. Acuña’s homer to center field sent a jolt through the dugout.

“Just across the entire team,” Sale said. “Ronnie leading off, I mean that’s tough. That’s a tough guy to face right out of the gate. And the electricity that just pulses when he’s in the lineup and when he is doing what he does. I got three outs and I had a 3-nothing lead by the time I went back out (for the second inning). So that’s huge and it starts obviously with Ronnie at the top.”

It was the second time Acuña homered on the first pitch of the opening inning in 23 games since coming off the injured list following a year-long rehab from knee surgery.

Sale hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a game since mid-April, after posting a 6.17 ERA through his first five starts. He has allowed one or no earned runs in eight of his past 10 starts and pitched at least six innings in eight of his past nine.

The Mets had the second-most wins in the majors and a 13-game lead over the third-place Braves in the NL East before coming to Atlanta for this series.

It didn’t matter.

The Braves have already clinched the three-game series that ends Thursday, the first games of the season between the teams who’ll meet again next week for a four-game series in New York.

“This is a really good team, too, across the way,” Sale said of the Mets. “I got a lot of respect for those guys, and they’ve got a great manager. So to be in a position like we’re in right now is big for us. You know, sports is crazy. You can be as down as you’ve ever been and then right back to it. And then on the flip side, you can be rolling and rolling, and then you get a kind of side swiped.”

Since losing six consecutive series and 14 of 17 games to slide to 10 games under .500, the Braves have shown some life, having won three consecutive series and six of their past eight games to improve to 33-39.

“So hopefully we can keep this momentum going,” Sale said, “and just kind of ride that wave and keep a level head and keep doing what we know how to do.”

Against the Mets, it almost defies logic how the Braves continue to hold the undeniable upper hand in in recent years regardless of how the two teams have fared otherwise. The Braves have won 25 of 35 against the Mets dating to 2022, outscoring them 210-135 in that stretch.

Atlanta won the season series between the teams every year since 2018, posting a 70-44 record against the Mets in that span. For the Mets, that’s 15 more losses than they’ve had against any other team in that period.

Make no mistake, the Mets (45-29) still have a sizeable 11-game lead in the NL East over the Braves, who also trail the second-place Philadelphia Phillies by 10 games. But the Braves will get their first series sweep on Thursday since winning three games against the Minnesota Twins two months ago.

“Obviously we’ve got a mountain to climb,” Riley said. “But just take it day by day.”

The Braves, who started out 0-7 and 5-13, are trying to become the first major-league team ever to advance to postseason play after losing their first seven games.

“When you play good baseball, you just kind of keep playing good baseball,” Sale said. “I say it a lot and I’ll keep saying it: The group of guys that we have in that clubhouse is very level headed, very down to earth and very connected. It’s tough in sports to have some rough patches and not point fingers and not get clicky and not exile this guy or that guy or whatever.

“And we fight together through the rough ones and we have fun together when we’re going good.”

They’re going well now, and the Braves had a lot of fun Wednesday, largely because of Sale.

(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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