Frustrated Chris Sale blames himself for Sunday’s loss, but everyone played part in series loss to Rays

A tough flight to Toronto instead of a happy one.

More questions and fewer answers.

Caminero’s home run sealed Atlanta’s 8-3 loss to the Rays on Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The Braves never led in the rubber match as Chris Sale struggled and the offense couldn’t match Tampa Bay’s outburst.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the Braves arrived in Tampa off a thrilling walk-off victory over the Phillies in a rain-delayed game to take the series. This represented the most positive point of the young season for these Braves, who began 0-7 before earning their first victory. The Braves on Sunday had a chance to continue riding this wave and take it to Canada – and they had their ace, Chris Sale, on the mound.

Then came a familiar theme: Not much can save the Braves right now.

Not even Sale, the reigning National League Cy Young who dominated the sport last season but has a 6.63 ERA through four starts this year.

“Yeah, frustrated would be a wild understatement,” he said after giving up four runs (three earned) over 4 1/3 innings on Sunday. “I just hate sucking, and I’m just bad.”

What can he point to that is off right now?

“I don’t know. Might be something you better ask the other team,” Sale said. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to compete and trying to throw strikes, and it’s just not working.”

It seems the last part is most frustrating for Sale. If he had an answer, he would adjust. But he is left wondering what is happening.

“Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this frustrated. Honestly,” Sale said. “I mean, I feel like I’m ... against the wall right now and I’m getting nothing out of it.”

Yandy Diaz led off the bottom of the first inning by homering off Sale. The lefty pitched himself into trouble multiple other times. He wasn’t crisp. He gave up six hits and walked three batters.

He also could’ve had more help. Jarred Kelenic sailed a throw over first baseman Matt Olson’s head as the Braves tried to double off a runner – and that runner advanced to third and eventually scored. Another time, Kelenic didn’t make a throw home from shallow right field on a play in which he may have had a chance to nab the runner at home.

Asked about these instances, Sale said: “Mistakes happen in this game. The last thing I’d ever do is point a finger at a teammate for making a mistake. I don’t think there’s any question who was the worst baseball player on that field today. And for me to sit here and try to say something about someone else making a mistake – this is baseball, this is sports, people make mistakes. And if you take one person off that field, I think we have a much better chance of winning that game. And I think we all know who that is.”

He meant himself.

Chris Sale.

“It’s his M.O,” Olson said of Sale’s accountability. “It’s the guy he is, it’s the player he is. He’s going to be the first one to stand up and say, ‘My bad’ even when we don’t have a hit through five innings or whatever it was. So, it’s not like we were out there giving him a bunch of run support and he was blowing the lead. He gave up three runs. He probably wouldn’t say that it was his ‘A’ game if you asked him, but he gave us a chance to win. We didn’t do anything for him.”

This is the other issue in all of this.

The Braves aren’t hitting well, which has meant their pitchers have needed to be almost perfect. Sale has not been sharp early in this season, a trend that continued in this game. And the bullpen couldn’t hold the Rays long enough for the offense to punch one final time. The Braves would’ve been swept here if not for Saturday’s comeback victory fueled by four home runs.

The Braves’ plan is for Spencer Strider to start on Wednesday – his return from elbow surgery. And Spencer Schwellenbach starts Tuesday. That should give them a solid opportunity to win the series.

Then again, nothing matters without an offense that can thrive with runners in scoring position and pile on runs. And right now, the Braves’ lineup hasn’t been consistent enough to inspire the type of confidence it once did. You used to look at those guys and wonder how an opposing pitcher would stop them. Now, you’re often left perplexed at how they had no answer for a pitcher.

This was the case Sunday, when Joe Boyle – starting in place of Shane Baz – spun five scoreless frames against the Braves. A year ago, Boyle had a 5.12 ERA and 39 walks over 45 2/3 innings at Triple A. Indications are he’s pitching much better this season. The Braves weren’t much of a match.

“Yeah, he was definitely a little more around the zone than I think what his numbers say,” Olson said. “Guys are going to come out and be different each given day, so you don’t put too much weight into it. You know he’s got the power heater, so you gotta be ready for that. And it looked like he made some good off-speed pitches.”

The Braves are 4-11. Yes, they had more positives over the last week. But they’re still the same number of games under .500 (seven) as they were when they started 0-7. At the time of Sunday’s final out, the Braves were tied with the White Sox for the second-fewest victories in baseball. The Rockies only had three.

The Braves shouldn’t be in the same sentence with the White Sox and Rockies unless they’re playing either of those teams.

This series loss was deflating after the Braves beat Philadelphia.

“I mean, we just gotta win games. It’s simple,” Sale said. “And today I did my best to not allow that to happen. As a whole, obviously we need to get things going. Just a frustrating day.”

His manager, Brian Snitker, put his thoughts like this:

“I’m glass half full because we’ve got too much baseball to play. We’ve seen it the last few years, we can turn this thing around and run off a good streak, too. So we just gotta hang in there and compartmentalize it and take it a day at a time and go out and win a game tomorrow.”

This is all Snitker can say. What else would you expect from him? No doubt, this has been a frustrating start. No one in that clubhouse is happy about it.

But fans are valid to be upset. This team is too talented to struggle like this.

In baseball, teams that lose are always grateful they’re playing the next day. It might not resonate with fans – and understandably so. They want the Braves to win.

Onto Toronto they go after this gut punch.

“Yeah, you want to keep winning series,” Olson said. “That’s the name of the game. That’s the mindset we want to be in. Had a chance to and just got away there at the end. Really, that’s the baseline of it. We gotta continue to try to win series. Get to Toronto, have a good series, bring it back home, get it rolling.”