Chris Sale dominates, offense does the bare minimum to win in eleven innings

Well aside from Sale’s dominance, it was a slog of a game to watch, but the Braves snuck out with an important win.

Looking for the series win against the disappointing Blue Jays, the Braves had to feel good about this Sunday matchup, with Chris Sale on the mound, facing Yariel Rodriguez for Toronto.

Things started inauspiciously for Atlanta, as Chris Sale hit George Springer on the back foot for a leadoff baserunner, but got three flyouts to harmlessly end the inning. The Braves’ offense had nothing going for their first stab at the plate. Sale got back on track with his nromal level in the second, striking out the side. Jarred Kelenic, who has shown some life lately, opened the scoring on the day, with a solo shot in the home second.

Aside from that blip, pitching dominated early, as Chris Sale did Chris Sale things and the Braves offense just failed to present any real threats. This continued into the sixth, as Sale completed another masterful outing, with 6.0 shutout innings, 7 strikeouts, and 1 walk. The Toronto bullpen took over as well in the sixth, after 5.0 innings by Rodriguez, keeping the Braves largely quiet, save for Kelenic’s homer. Dylan Lee got the first call from the pen for Atlanta and gave way to Pierce Johnson after two singles for a scoreless inning, maintaining the flimsy 1-0 lead.

The offense continued to be silent in the seventh and Joe Jimenez started the eighth, continuing the strange trend of Braves relievers throwing one pitch outings. Jimenez allowed a leadoff double that was later changed to an error on Gio Urshela and looked like he might get out of it unscathed until allowing a two out homer to Spencer Horwitz, giving up the lead. Jimenez did issue a walk, but struck out Barger to hold the Blue Jays there, but the damage was done.

Gio Urshela gave Atlanta a rare baserunner in the eighth, with a leadoff single, advancing to second on an error and to third on an Arcia groundout. Snitker used d’Arnaud as a pinch-hitter for Luke Williams, but, in true 2024 Braves fashion, he struck out and Michael Harris grounded out, stranding Urshela. This also set up Eli White to play second base in the ninth. Jesse Chavez got the ninth for Atlanta and got around a Springer double on three contact outs, giving the Braves offense one more chance to show up.

Eli White and Marcell Ozuna hit back to back singles to start the home ninth , and Duvall pinch-ran for Marcell. Matt Olson hit a sac-fly, tying the game back up at 2. Sean Murphy grounded into a tailor-made double-play to end any hopes of a ninth inning walk-off.

Raisel Iglesias got the tenth and intentionally walked Vladdy to set up the double-play and avoid his bat. He got a soft lineout for the first out, but then a soft single loaded the bases for the Blue Jays. A chopper turned into a forceout at home for the second out, on a heads-up play by Arcia, and a groundout to Urshela gave the Braves’ offense another golden chance to win the game. The Blue Jays intentionally walked Kelenic, hoping for a double-play with razor thin margins. The Braves gifted them an Urshela bunt that turned into a forceout at third, completely wasting an at-bat. Arcia, however got a swinging bunt single to load the bases head of Laureano with one out. Ramon wasted another at-bat, with a pop-up in foul territory between home and first. Michael Harris hit a ball well on a line, but right at the center-fielder, sending the game to the eleventh.

Iglesias came back out for the eleventh and was gifted a sac bunt to start the inning. He struck out Varsho for the second out, before allowing a single to score the zombie-runner off the bat of George Springer. A flyout ended the inning with a 3-2 score, giving the Braves’ offense yet another chance to show up and win the game, but this time with a chance to lose. Eli White executed a perfect bunt to lead off the home eleventh, not only moving Harris to third, but getting a single out of it. Adam Duvall hit a grounder to third and should have been out at first, but an errant throw (or perhaps more of a bad pick by Vladdy) sent him to second and scored Harris, tying the game. After another intentional walk to load the bases, Sean Murphy hit a game-winning fielder’s choice ground ball to bring home the final run.

Chris Sale and the pitching gave the Braves every chance to win this game and the offense did the absolute bare minimum to win the game. With that being said, a win is a win and the Braves remain lurking in the wild-card hunt.

Join us again tomorrow at 6:40 PM for a make-up game against the Reds.