The Braves held the Rockies scoreless last night behind another gem of an outing by Chris Sale, who went seven innings of no-run ball to go along with nine strikeouts, no walks, and only six hits.
Atlanta’s offense did just enough to give him another victory, and now Sale is set up to win his first-ever Cy Young. The wily veteran is the major league leader in ERA (2.46) and strikeouts (206) and has baseball’s best record (16-3). He’s also only allowed two earned runs or fewer in 21 of the last 22 starts.
Chris Sale and the rest of the Braves pitching staff have shown fans the formula for success all season — grinding out low-scoring affairs. The offense has been pedestrian for the entire year, and some of that is due to injuries, which means it’s just not going to suddenly get better.
That doesn’t mean it can’t get worse, though, because it can if the Braves lose another piece of this club, that might be the fat lady singing. They can’t afford to lose another player to injury, and it just so happens the club may have narrowly avoided another one last night.
Late in the game, Whit Merrifield took a scorching fastball off the dome, but it seems that all signs point to him being okay moving forward.
Merrifield says he'll have a CT Scan just to make sure everything is fine. He is part of the rules committee and plans to address pitchers throwing up and in with no repercussions during tomorrow morning's meeting. If he's as spirited as he was tonight, it will be a fun meeting.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) September 4, 2024
The Braves have a very narrow path to success in the postseason, if they can even get there, but this is the kind of pitching staff that can shoulder the load of a championship club.
Merrifield going down with Ozzie Albies still on the mend would’ve been another brutal blow because the veteran utility man has been productive for this Braves club. He was hitting below the Mendoza line before being DFA’d by the Phillies, but he’s been about league average (98 wRC+) since joining the Braves.
The hope is that he will continue to hold down second base until Albies returns. At that point, he’ll be a Swiss Army Knife for Brian Snitker, able to potentially play third base or in the outfield.
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Photographer: Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire
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