{"id":878192,"date":"2026-08-31T12:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878192\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T12:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:06:09","slug":"shutout-against-the-dodgers-shows-chris-sale-is-still-elite-at-age-37-and-building-a-hall-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878192\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutout against the Dodgers shows Chris Sale is still elite at age 37 — and building a Hall case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Sale<\/a> shut out the Dodgers and threw a 100 mph fastball in the process.<\/p>\n

You could call it turning back the clock, but that would imply the Atlanta left-hander\u2019s best days are behind him. And that\u2019s hardly the case.<\/p>\n

Sale struck out 11 in a five-hitter Thursday night, lowering his ERA to 2.06. Only Jacob Misiorowski<\/a>\u2019s (1.73) is better, and Sale may be the only one capable of pushing the Milwaukee ace in the Cy Young race. At the very least, Sale has a good chance to post his eighth top-five finish in a Cy Young vote. He won in 2024, his first season with the Braves.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s 1-0 win over Los Angeles was Sale\u2019s first complete game since 2019 and included his first time reaching 100 mph on a pitch since 2018. He was with Boston then, wrapping up a stretch of seven straight years (2012-18) finishing in the top six in the Cy Young vote. But a poor 2019 was followed by Tommy John surgery, and Sale\u2019s future looked uncertain.<\/p>\n

Since the Red Sox traded him to Atlanta for Vaughn Grissom<\/a>, however, Sale has been an elite pitcher again. He finally won that elusive Cy Young in 2024, going 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA. He was 7-5 with a 2.58 ERA in 21 games last season, and this year he\u2019s on pace to post an ERA under 2.20 for the third time as a starter. He also did that in 2014 with the Chicago White Sox<\/a> and 2018 with Boston.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Sale doesn\u2019t have as much Cy Young hardware as Justin Verlander<\/a> or Max Scherzer<\/a>, but if he can pitch into his 40s like they have, his Hall of Fame case could look pretty solid. His career wins above replacement total \u2014 per Baseball Reference \u2014 is roughly the same as CC Sabathia\u2019s. And Sabathia was voted in on the first ballot.<\/p>\n

Sale is under contract with Atlanta for next season, and the Braves have a team option for 2028.<\/p>\n

Trivia time<\/p>\n

Sale\u2019s only second-place finish in the Cy Young vote came in 2017. Who beat him out?<\/p>\n

Performance of the week<\/p>\n

While Sale tries to prevent Misiorowski from running away with the Cy Young Award, Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> is putting in quite a claim for the National League MVP. He hit three homers with six RBIs for the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in a 17-5 win over Cincinnati on Saturday. Then the following day he went deep two more times. Crow-Armstrong is up to 38 homers on the year, just two shy of Kyle Schwarber<\/a>\u2019s major league-leading total.<\/p>\n

Comeback of the week<\/p>\n

The Reds scored seven runs in the top of the ninth to beat San Francisco 10-9 on Wednesday. H\u00e9ctor Rodr\u00edguez led off the inning with a homer to make the score 9-4. Then a single and two walks loaded the bases for Eugenio Su\u00e1rez, whose grand slam brought Cincinnati within a run with still nobody out. Jose Trevino<\/a> eventually tied it with a sacrifice fly, and Tyler Stephenson<\/a>\u2019s RBI single gave the Reds the lead.<\/p>\n

Team of the week<\/p>\n

The Braves were baseball\u2019s only unbeaten team this week, going 6-0. They continue to hold Philadelphia at arm\u2019s length in the NL East, leading the division by five games after Matt Olson<\/a>\u2019s walk-off single against Colorado on Sunday extended Atlanta\u2019s winning streak to seven.<\/p>\n

The Braves swept three straight games against the Dodgers, winning each by a run. One of them was Sale\u2019s gem. Another came on a walk-off single by pinch-hitter Ha-Seong Kim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trivia answer<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s Corey Kluber won it that year.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n

Noah Trister, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Sale shut out the Dodgers and threw a 100 mph fastball in the process. You could call…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-878192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}