Braves’ Chris Sale earns first win and looks more like himself

The D-backs could have dealt quite the blow early in the game. Instead, Sale gave his own team a boost by denying the home nine.

“Yeah, that was huge,” Michael Harris II said. “That was a momentum-booster. Did we score that second inning?”

Yes, you did. Three runs.

“Yeah, there we go. See?” Harris said. “We got some momentum from it. He’s a dog on the mound and I think he loves those big moments where he can get out of tough situations.”

In the top of the second, minutes after Sale’s stand, the Braves hung three runs on Arizona’s Zac Gallen. So, instead of falling into an early hole, the Braves were out to a lead — which you know is important if you have watched this first month of Braves baseball.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The Braves crushed the D-backs 8-2 in Friday’s series opener at Chase Field. Sale earned his first win of the season and lowered his ERA to 5.40 with five innings and one run allowed. He was not crisp enough to dominate, but he did his part. Given that Sale had struggled to this point, the Braves happily took this outing.

“I felt like I was out there competing and not really just battling myself tonight,” Sale said. “I wouldn’t exactly say you want to hang your hat on something like tonight. But a step in the right direction, I’m getting a lot of positive feedback and something to move forward with some momentum.”

To put Sale’s first win into context: It came in his sixth start of 2025. A year ago, when Sale finished the season tied for the MLB lead with 18 wins, he never went longer than four starts without a win.

“That’ll be, I think, good for his psyche and everything to get that first win,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just like a team when you’re trying to get the first win. It’s hard. So, I’m happy for him to get that behind him.”

Could this be a turning point in Sale’s season? Perhaps.

In the first game of their road trip, Sale held down a dangerous lineup. Multiple times, he escaped trouble. He pitched his way out of the aforementioned first-inning jam. In the third, he stranded Corbin Carroll at third base after the outfielder hit a one-out triple. In the fifth, three D-backs reached base and one scored, but Sale left the other two on the bases.

Sale’s lineup rewarded him.

In the second inning, Eli White, Wednesday’s hero, doubled home the Braves’ first run. Two batters later, Alex Verdugo, the new spark in the order, blooped a run-scoring double that landed just fair down the left-field line. Then Austin Riley followed that with a run-scoring single.

“I felt like I was making some good pitches and just kind of got into a little bit of a jam there. Got a strikeout when I really needed it,” Sale said. “It kind of knocks the edge off a little bit (to get out of it) and then I come and sit down in the dugout and we get three runs, that helps a lot, too. Offense had a big night, so that alleviates a little bit of (pressure).”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The Braves had a three-run lead after that second-inning outburst. Too often in this early part of the season, they’ve trailed early in games. They haven’t hit consistently enough. But it hasn’t helped to fall behind quickly in some games. This time, Sale kept Arizona off the board in the first and the Braves paid it back in the next inning.

Sale, the reigning National League Cy Young, wasn’t at his best in this start. He had to battle. He only made it through five innings, which matched a season high, because Arizona drove up his pitch count. When he walked off the mound after retiring the D-backs in the bottom of the fifth, Sale had thrown a season-high 104 pitches.

The Braves really needed this from Sale, who is now more important than ever for them. They’re without Reynaldo López for a few months after he had a shoulder cleanup procedure. They got back Spencer Strider for one start, then lost him to the injured list again when he strained his hamstring playing catch.

At this juncture, the Braves cannot afford for Sale to struggle.

So Friday was an encouraging night.

“That’s big. And he feels good. That’s the thing,” Snitker said. “(Pitching coach Rick Kranitz) and I were talking that, ‘You know, his stuff’s really good.’ This team doesn’t swing and miss much. They really make you work. And he just kept battling and didn’t have many easy outs. But as long as he’s healthy, I think he’s going to be fine. He’s been through struggles before. But I like his stuff, where he’s at with all that. That was a good sign tonight.”

In quieting a potent D-backs lineup, Sale provided confidence in his direction. Perhaps this won’t be a turning point. But it was his best start of this young season, which counts for something. The Braves, who’ve had a rough start, have searched for positives. This — Sale’s solid start — is another.

The Braves’ offense added two runs in the sixth and three in the eighth to build a seven-run lead. And for a team that has suffered some bad luck early in this season, this seventh-inning moment must’ve felt nice: Carroll, Arizona’s star outfielder, hit what umpires ruled to be a two-run home run off Dylan Lee, but the umpires reviewed it and determined the ball had gone just to the right of the right-field foul pole. Lee soon completed the inning unscathed.

It all began with Sale.

“Yeah, it was good,” Harris said. “Good lineup that he faced tonight and held them to one run, and gave us the best chance to win the game.”

On this night, everyone contributed to help Sale earn his first win of the season.

More important than that: The Braves’ reigning Cy Young looked closer to himself than he had previously.

“It was good,” Sale said. “A step in the right direction. Felt like this was the first time I was able to kind of get a little bit of feel back. I’ve still got some work to do, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.”