Chris Sale had not finished a game in seven years. He had not thrown a pitch 100 miles per hour in eight.
Thursday night, the 37-year-old Braves' lefthander did both.
Sale scattered five hits, struck out 11 and did not walk a batter as he shut out the Dodgers 1-0 at Truist Park.
The last time Sale went nine innings, he was wearing a Red Sox jersey. It was June 5, 2019 in Kansas City. Since then he had Tommy John surgery, broke a rib and won a Cy Young Award at age 35. He barely pitched for four of those years, 31 starts total from 2020 through 2023.
But Thursday night, Sale pitched like those seven years were just a bad dream.
His fastball touched 100.1 miles per hour, his hardest pitch since 2018. He used it on Shohei Ohtani, who struck out twice
swinging and did not get a hit out of the infield until the eighth inning. Sale needed 109 pitches and threw 80 of them for strikes. He generated 20 swings and misses.
Sale has been living on the margins all season. He lost 2-1 at Milwaukee last Friday and 2-0 to Arizona the week before. Thursday night, the one run came from Drake Baldwin, who led off the bottom of the first with his 22nd home run.
That was all Sale was going to get and he made it stand up. He is 13-9 with a 2.06 ERA, a combination that takes some doing. He has 177 strikeouts and 28 walks in 144 innings.
Atlanta is 79-55 and leads the National League East. Milwaukee, at 83-51, has the best record in the league. The Brewers have the best record in baseball and are in position to get one of the two first-round byes in the playoffs. The Dodgers, 80-54, are in position to claim the other, but only by a game over the Braves after losing three straight in Atlanta.
At 37 years, 150 days old, Sale is one of six pitchers who have thrown a shutout with double-digit strikeouts and no walks at that age or older.
The other five are in the Hall of Fame: Cy Young (twice in 1905), Eddie Plank (1913), Steve Carlton (1982), Nolan Ryan (1989) and Randy Johnson (2001 and 2004).
Chris Sale stats vs. Dodgers
- Innings: 9
- Hits: 5
- Runs: 0
- Walks: 0
- Strikeouts: 11
- Pitches: 109 (80 strikes)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Sale throws complete game shutout against Dodgers, hits 100 mph at 37 years old
