The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 on Thursday night, and Chris Sale was on his A-game.
Sale threw a complete-game shutout, his first since 2019. He needed to be dominant, as the only run the Braves could get off Yoshinobu Yamamoto was a solo home run from Drake Baldwin in the first inning, on the first pitch Yamamoto threw. As the bats went dormant, Sale dialed back the clock.
Sale threw a 100.1 mph pitch to Shohei Ohtani in the third inning, which Ohtani fouled off. It goes down as just a foul ball, but it is more than just that. It was the first time since 2018 that Sale logged triple digits in a game, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman. His last time touching triple digits was on July 6, 2018.
That 2018 game was against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City. It was the same night that Sale notched his 100th career win, striking out 12 in a 10-5 Red Sox victory. He threw one pitch over 100 mph in that game, a 100.3 mph ball to Lucas Duda in the second inning.
Sale is 37 years old now and is in contention to win his second Cy Young Award. He, Jacob Misiorowski and Cristopher Sánchez are the three contenders for the award in the National League this year, and Sale may have gotten himself closer to passing Misiorowski for the award on Thursday night.
If the Braves want to reach the World Series, they will likely have to face the Dodgers at some point. Sale will once again have to be dominant when that time comes.