This cup of Joe appearance Boyled Atlanta hitters
Well Chris Sales threw harder. After sitting around 93 mph for his first 3 starts, he averaged 96 mph in this one.
It didn’t help.
Sale’s day started off rough with Yandy Diaz hitting a leadoff home run, and the Rays would add another run later in the inning to make it 2-0. He was able to keep the Rays off the board for a couple innings before they were able to bloop a run in during the fourth and fifth innings, effectively running Sale out of the game.
What really did Sale in was running up his pitch count, hitting 98 pitches in less than five innings. He finished his outing with 7 Ks on 14 whiffs (eh), but he also surrendered 3 walks and had trouble at times putting Rays hitters away. In some respects, it was a better outing than he’s had, but he left the Atlanta Braves offense in a 4-0 hole that they couldn’t dig out of.
For a bit there, it didn’t even seem like they’d score.
Joe Boyle made his first MLB appearance of the season, and he was throwing darts to start the game. He had a perfect game through five innings along with 7 strikeouts, and Braves hitters looked basically incapable of doing any damage. Matt Olson hit a few balls hard, but otherwise, Atlanta hitters struggled to do much. At least until the 6th inning.
Nick Allen drew a leadoff walk, stole second base, and got to third on a throwing error. Eli White drew another walk to finally rid the Braves of Boyle, who had reached 74 pitches at this point. With the top of the order coming up, the Rays removed Boyle in exchanged for flame-throwing lefty Mason Montgomery.
Michael Harris grounded into a fielder’s choice to score the first run, and he would score the second by stealing second and scoring on a Matt Olson “single” to left.
That “single” hit off the very literal top of the ball and came back, and I don’t think it could have gone any further without going over. Albies added a bloop single to bring the Braves within a run at 4-3.
Pierce Johnson and Enyel de los Santos promptly ended that threat.
Trying to stretch Johnson another inning to cover for a short Sale start, Johnson gave up a hit and a walk before giving way to de los Santos. De los Santos then promptly gave up a run-scoring single followed a three-run blast to put this game away, now 8-3.
Garrett Cleavinger struck out the side, and Mason Englert pitched two relatively uneventful innings to finish the game and the Braves.
Atlanta will now head to Toronto for a three-game series, starting tomorrow at 7:07 PM EDT.