“Untouchable” defined the performance of Chris Sale, outdueling Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a battle of aces that lived up to expectations as the Braves won 1-0. Raising their respective games up to the occasion, Yamamoto and Sale made true on the standard assumption that great pitching beats great hitting, operating as the two best players in the game. An early ambush from leadoff hitter Drake Baldwin proved the difference maker, homering in the bottom of the opening frame on the first pitch Yamamoto threw.
Facing the likes of Sale and Yamamoto, one cannot afford to get behind in the count, and it’s with that thought in mind that both teams shared a similar approach early in the game. The Dodgers and Braves came out swinging early and often, trying to avoid any two-strike counts against pitchers with different paths to the same destination: one of utter domination.
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In that approach, Atlanta was able to draw first blood when Drake Baldwin guessed right and crushed a not-so-well-located heater in the zone. While on a fundamental level it makes sense to be more willing to swing early as a team, the risks of it are fairly clear, and the Dodgers suffered from it. Aggressive swinging ensures you won’t be capable of drawing out long at-bats, and you’re a few lousy contacts away from allowing the opposing starter to go deeper into the game than he normally would, maintaining a low pitch count. And Sale did exactly that, with his first complete game shutout since 2019.
One of the rare Dodgers with success against Sale in this game was Mookie Betts, twice taking advantage of down-and-in off-speed pitches that didn’t quite break enough. Still, without leaving the yard, Mookie was just a helpless spectator on the basepaths, which included getting stranded at second after a leadoff double in the fourth.
If players ever try to downplay the extra significance of certain moments, point to what we saw from Sale against Shohei Ohtani in the fifth inning as an argument against it. Hitting with one on and two outs, Ohtani was punched out by Sale on a 100 mph fastball up above the zone, Sale’s fastest pitch in nearly a decade, giving Ohtani all it had and then some.
Flawless in his craft, Sale matched equal levels of efficiency and dominance, cruising through quick innings with plenty of strikeouts to his name as the Dodgers couldn’t touch the fastball-slider combo. In the bottom of the seventh, Kiké Hernández put a good swing on an up-and-in fastball but had just a bit too much air on it, dying at the track for the final out of the inning.
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In the eighth inning, Sale hit Tommy Edman with two outs and saw the go-ahead run come to the plate in the form of Betts, the Dodgers’ most successful hitter on the night. Sale got down in the count 3-0 but kept his composure and eventually induced a harmless groundout to second. Freddie Freeman reached to lead off the ninth and make things interesting, but once again, not that much, with Sale retiring the following three in order, including an 11th strikeout for the final out, retiring Alex Call.
It’s a shame that the Dodgers offense couldn’t get on the board because after the leadoff home run, Yamamoto was pretty spectacular as well. The Dodgers starter put up zeros and pitched into the seventh before leaving a bit of a mess for Jack Dreyer to clean up—nothing that the left-handed reliever couldn’t handle, though, preserving the 1-0 score.
Game particulars
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Home run— Drake Baldwin (22)
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WP—Chris Sale (13-9): 9 IP, 5 hits, 11 strikeouts
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LP—Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8): 6.1 IP, 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts
Up next
Friday’s matchup is as special as they come in the regular season, with Tarik Skubal leading the Dodgers against his former team for the first time at Comerica Park. Skubal will be opposed by the right-hander Drew Anderson, who joined the Tigers’ rotation shortly after the trade deadline. It’s a little earlier start time than the games in Atlanta, with first pitch scheduled for 3:40 p.m. (PT).
