Chris Sale took the mound for the Atlanta Braves on Friday night to open a weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with Emmet Sheehan starting for the home team. The matchup sent two very different stretches into the same spotlight: Sale’s early Cy Young-level run and a Dodgers team trying to steady itself after a rocky two weeks.
Sale entered at 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA and had allowed one run or fewer in six of his seven starts. In his last four outings, he was 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA, piling up 33 strikeouts against seven walks in 26 innings. His latest start was even sharper: on Saturday in Colorado, he struck out 11 in seven innings while allowing one run and three hits.
The Braves needed that version of Sale. They came into the series after traveling from Seattle and losing their first series of the season in 12 tries, and they led the National League with 55 home runs before Thursday’s games. Matt Olson had hit 13 of them and ranked second in the league with a 1.059 OPS before Thursday’s games, giving Atlanta a lineup built to support a starter who has been overwhelming hitters.
Sale’s record against Los Angeles has not matched his season form. Before Friday, he was 1-2 with a 6.65 ERA in five career appearances against the Dodgers, including an 0-1 mark with a 6.75 ERA in two starts in Los Angeles. That history was the obvious crack in an otherwise dominant profile, and it gave the series opener a little more edge than a standard Friday game in May.
Walt Weiss did not hide how he views the veteran left-hander. He called Sale “Es un fenómeno” and said he is “Es un futuro miembro del Salón de la Fama, y esos jugadores son simplemente diferentes. Eso es lo que ha estado haciendo prácticamente durante toda su carrera en las Grandes Ligas.”
The Dodgers, meanwhile, returned home after a 3-3 trip to St. Louis and Houston and came in tied for second in the National League with 50 home runs before Thursday’s games. But the bigger issue has been run production. Los Angeles was 7-8 since April 21 and averaged just 1.6 runs in eight losses over that stretch. Andy Pages briefly changed the mood Wednesday by hitting three home runs in a 12-2 win in Houston, but the club still had to sort through other concerns.
Tyler Glasnow left a game after the first inning Wednesday because of tightness in his lower back, adding more strain to a pitching staff that was already being watched closely. Blake Snell was nearing a return from the injured list, but until then, the Dodgers were leaning on Sheehan and others to bridge the gap.
Sheehan, who had one career start against the Braves before the game, came in after allowing four runs in a loss to the Cardinals on Friday. He gave up eight hits in 4 2/3 innings against St. Louis and struck out eight without walking a batter, but his velocity had been down this season, including an average of 93.4 mph in that start. Asked about the issue, Sheehan said in Spanish that there was nothing concrete he could point to as the reason and that the only option was to keep working hard at it.
That left Friday’s opener with the feel of a test on both sides. Sale was trying to keep doing what he has done almost all season. The Dodgers were trying to find enough pitching and enough offense to keep from letting another home game slip away.
