Atlanta’s ace starting pitcher dominated in May.
It was a below .500 month for the Atlanta Braves in May – one that saw the team climb above the mark mid-way through the month before floundering through the last two weeks. June has been a month where this generation of Braves teams have gotten hot so time will tell if that holds true this year.
Despite the up-and-down nature of the last 31 days for the Braves, there were several consistent performers through out the month.
From the position player group, Drake Baldwin had a torrid start to the month before scuffling a bit in the final week. He still managed to hit almost .400 for the month with an OPS north of 1.000 in 19 games. His sultry left-handed swing yielded 21 hits included three home runs.
Elsewhere in the line-up, Matt Olson hit eight home runs, Marcell Ozuna drew 22 free passes, and Ozzie Albies finally broke out of a season-long slump in the last two weeks of the month. It wasn’t all about the bat as Michael Harris II continues to be provide highlights in center field while Nick Allen might be the best defensive shortstop in the game this year.
And of course, Ronald Acuña, Jr. returned with a literal bang.
The team’s starting pitching was strong all month. Bryce Elder was pitching well before being crunched off the roster after three starts. Grant Holmes and Spencer Schwellenbach both were highly effective all month. In the bullpen, Dylan Lee, Enyel De Los Santos, Pierce Johnson and Aaron Bummer provided a strong month of collective work.
In May, however, no one had a better month than the reigning and defending National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale.
Battery Power Braves Player of the Month: Chris Sale
In five starts in May, Chris Sale pitched 32.1 innings, allowed four earned runs on 24 hits and struck out 40 batters – including the final batter in his last outing of the month which was the 2,500th of his career. He achieved that milestone faster than any pitcher in MLB history.
Not only has Sale asserted himself into All-Star consideration, if he continues to perform as he has going back to mid-April, he’ll have a viable opportunity to collect back-to-back Cy Young Awards. But there is still a lot of time between May 31 and the end of the season.
Back to May, Sale completed seven innings twice and pitched into the seventh in another start, leaning on his slider – a pitch he threw more than 50-percent of the time during the month.
The velocity on his fastball continues to increase as the season progresses, although it spiked in his return to Boston when he average 96.8 MPH during that start – a full mile per hour higher than his average for the month.
Sale’s breaking pitches are as good as any in the game – one glance at Baseball Savant’s page will verify that with a perfect “100” in his Breaking Run Value for the season.
The left-hander hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a game since April 13 and lowered his ERA from 4.84 on April 30th to 3.04 by the end of May. While ERA is just a number, it shows the progression he has been since a slow start to his 2025. For the month, he had a 2.92 xFIP and struck out 31.0-percent of the batters he faced.
After a phenomenal first season in Atlanta last year, May 2025’s version of Chris Sale was a reminder that the 36-year-old is still one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.