The postseason awards are starting to arrive for Chris Sale.
The Braves left-handed pitcher won a Gold Glove Award on Sunday night. Sale, the favorite to win the National League Cy Young Award, was honored for the first time in his 14-year career.
Sale won the award over the Mets’ Luis Severino and the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler.
The 35-year-old Sale made 29 starts this season and went 18-3 with a 2.38 earned run average, leading the majors in both wins and ERA. He posted a 1.000 fielding percentage with 31 defensive chances. He finished with a perfect fielding percentage for the ninth time in his career. Sale, who was named to his eighth career All-Star team this year, also picked off a pair of baserunners in 25 attempts. Among pitchers with as many tries, his pickoff success rate of 8% was tied for seventh best baseball.
Since the award was first furnished in 1958, Sale’s Gold Glove win marks the 20th by a Braves pitcher in team history, the most by any club at the position. He joins Greg Maddux (10 Gold Gloves), Phil Niekro (five), Max Fried (three) and Mike Hampton (one) to earn the distinction with the franchise.
The Braves have won a Gold Glove in four of the last five seasons and have totaled 15 such honors in the last 13 years.
