NORTH PORT, Fla. – Chris Sale appreciated the ovation Braves fans gave him as he exited Sunday’s game with two outs in the third inning.
“Just don’t suck and they’ll like it,” Sale said before cracking up.
Through half of camp, it’s clear he has a great sense of humor. But he’s correct, and he’s given Braves fans no reason not to like him.
He arrived as a marquee offseason addition, and the hype has only built.
Sale on Sunday hurled 2 2/3 scoreless innings against the Phillies at CoolToday Park in his second spring start. He allowed three hits, walked two batters and struck out five.
Sale through two starts this spring: Nine strikeouts over 4 2/3 scoreless frames. Perhaps most important, he’s healthy and able to solely focus on the stepping stones he must hit to be ready for Opening Day instead of worrying about an injury.
“I want to be able to be who I’m supposed to be for this team, and all that work in the offseason and leading up to spring training, I want to make that worth it,” he said. “We still got some work to do, there’s some things to iron out. But I like where we’re at and I like the kind of trajectory we’re going in.”
Sale called his latest outing a mixed bag because “it was terrible, all right and pretty good all at the same time.” He’d like to clean up his command, which was spotty. But he made pitches when necessary.
No, spring training results aren’t everything. But Sale is a competitor, and who would seriously rather perform poorly than well? He departed with runners on second and third and two outs in the third, and Kodi Whitley preserved the lefty’s scoreless line.
It could benefit Sale to experience some choppy situations now. They’ll always arise during the year. How a pitcher handles them is the important part.
“Throughout the season, you’re gonna make starts where it isn’t there. And you kind of got to figure it out on the fly,” Sale said. “That’s kind of the separation between some good days and really bad days. Again, glad that I was able to get over some of those humps. Just one of those weird ones, I guess.”
Sale topped out at 97 mph. He also had a few 96 mph and 95 mph readings, too. He continued throwing his slider, which can be wicked when he’s at his best.
The main thing for the Braves is that he’s healthy. Sale is accomplished enough that spring training results are relative to how he’s feeling.
His command may have been a bit iffy at times, but he’s healthy, and that’s the important part.
“Really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That was awesome. He threw one behind a righty and threw one behind a lefty and I said, ‘It’s good, because you didn’t hit ‘em.’”
So far, so good this spring for Sale. He seems to be in a good spot and headed in the correct direction.
A bonus: He’s enjoying himself this spring.
“This facility is great,” he said. “Everybody here has been awesome. The fans are very receptive, they’re behind us. So that’s all you can ask for. When athletes, specifically myself, talk about energy and feeding off of that, that’s them. Obviously your teammates and the situation you’re in might dictate that, but the fans bring energy.”
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