August 7, 2024; Atlanta, Ga.; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale (51) pitches in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports Chris Sale will get a chance to repeat his 10th-anniversary performance Monday night when the Atlanta Braves open a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants.
The Braves (61-56) and Giants (61-59) enter the week 1 1/2 games apart in the National League’s crowded wild-card race. San Francisco moved up the standings last month by winning two of three games on the road at Georgia, beating Atlanta.
Sale (13-3, 2.75 ERA) led the Braves to their only series win, a 3-1 victory on July 6. He allowed one run on three hits, two walks and nine strikeouts in six innings.
But it was far less impressive than his only start in San Francisco on August 12, 2014, when the left-hander shut out the Giants, striking out 12 and allowing four hits in eight innings against the Chicago White Sox. The game ended 3-2, 10 innings.
A longtime American League pitcher, he has faced the Giants just once since, going 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three starts against San Francisco in the series opener.
Sale’s opposing pitcher in the 2014 game was Ryan Fogelsong, who retired after the 2016 season.
On Monday, Sale will be in a showdown with multiple Cy Young Award candidates. Sale has finished in the top six of the voting seven times, while his opponent, Giants left-hander Blake Snell (2-3, 4.31 ERA), is a two-time winner (2018, 2023).
Snell will be coming off a two-game winning streak that included a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 2 after going winless in his first 10 starts of the season. The 31-year-old did not pitch in the previous series in Atlanta.
He was winless in three starts against the Braves, going 0-2 with a 4.20 ERA.
In a career that included two ERA titles for Snell and eight All-Star appearances for Sale, the two pitchers have faced each other only once: on May 13, 2017, when Sale pitched for the Boston Red Sox and Snell pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Sale earned the win, striking out 12 in seven innings against the Tampa Bay Rays in a 6-3 win. Snell took the loss, allowing six runs in 5 2/3 innings.
The Braves and Giants will face each other for the first time since a deadline trade last month, when Atlanta acquired Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson in exchange for injured outfielder Tyler Matzek and minor league infielder Sabin Ceballos.
Soler had two home runs and four RBIs against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, but the Braves lost for the seventh time in their last eight games.
Matt Olson, another Braves player whose return to the Bay Area will be a homecoming of sorts after playing six seasons with the Oakland Athletics, said his team still has room to grow.
“It’s not hot yet,” he said last weekend in Colorado, where the Braves lost three games to two. “You never know when it’s going to happen. We’re going to show up every day with the mindset that it starts today. We’ll see if we can get hot at the right time.”
Meanwhile, the Giants have won four of their last five games. They will have to ignore their only loss, a 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
“Every game is equally important. Right now it’s about winning as many games as possible,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of the importance of the Braves series.
– Field level media
