Pokemon card king and staff ace Chris Sale will take the mound for the Braves as they seek a second series win (and avoid a second consecutive series loss) over the Boston Red Sox. Sale (7-3, 1.89 ERA) checked off a box with his first win over Miami his last time out, striking out eight Marlins in his seven innings of work. He started the month of May with a 2.14 ERA and has gone at at least six innings in each of his last seven starts. As dominant as he’s been, however, he’s been a victim of not
having run support. Sounds familiar…
We’re starting to see a worrying trend with this Drake Baldwin-less offense, and it is runs being at an absolute premium, even when the pitching does its job. With the record we have, it’s greedy to ask for more comfortable wins. But here I am, asking anyway.
You only have to go back to last Saturday for the last time Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.45 ERA) faced the Braves. I was only periodically checking in at a truly beautiful wedding reception celebrating some dear friends. It was a “oh, nice” vibe for most of dinner, “not comfy but a lead’s a lead” during cake cutting, and then “we tried to get Cute about Bryce Elder and the rally fell just short and we lost?” right before dutifully reporting to the dance floor. Upon review of the box score much later, it was truly dismaying to see how Tolle mowed down this Braves lineup, needing 85 pitches to get through eight innings. It is even more haunting when you see that Drake Baldwin was responsible for two of the four hits off Tolle and batted in both earned runs – get better soon, king. (And if you were wondering, José Azócar, who got the start in RF, collected the other two). Yikes! Looking for anyone else who’d like to step up here, especially after being blanked last night.
Tolle also had a quality start versus the Twins since we’ve seen him – he went six, gave up four hits and three earned runs, walked two, and struck out nine. With his run since being called up, it’s wild to think he didn’t make the team out of spring training. Here’s hoping that some familiarity and recency can help the Braves solve him this time to win the series.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Thursday, May 28, 4:10 p.m. ET
Location: Fenway Park, Boston, MA
TV: BravesVision
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
