Chris Sale was fantastic in May and will try to carry it over, as the offense looks for a clean break from their May-laise
The Braves did not have a good time in May, finishing with their first losing month since… May of 2022. There was a lack of offensive results, and the team won as many series (four) as it lost. While the team’s April saw it play to an expected, best-in-class level, May has resulted in them falling to MLB’s eighth-best record, something supported by its run differential, BaseRuns accrual, and so on. So, the Braves have given themselves a fair bit of work to do, and now that the calendar has turned to June, there’s no better time to start doing it.
Chris Sale probably doesn’t care about personal accomplishments in light of team success, but if he did, he might be sad to see the calendar turn. The 35-year-old lefty was deliriously dominant in May, throwing 32 innings with a, I swear this isn’t a typo, 45/2 K/BB ratio. He was charged with a singleton run in his first outing, and a singleton run in his last outing of the month, while striking out no fewer than eight, and walking no more than one batter per start. He allowed zero homers, and pitched the only game the Braves won in three series over the course of the month.
As a result of May, Sale’s numbers on the year are, well, epic. He now has a 52 ERA-, 55 FIP-, and 61 xFIP-. Those are like, dominant reliever numbers, except he’s already faced nearly 250 batters across ten starts. He’s fifth in MLB among starters in fWAR with 2.2, but only has ten outings, as opposed to eleven or twelve, like the four guys ahead of him. He probably won’t take over the MLB lead today, even with a great outing, but uncontested second place is a possibility. Of course, he actually has to pitch well to achieve that, but given the way his May has gone, it seems like the only thing that can stymie him is his own body, and not opposing batters.
Meanwhile, the Braves’ offense still needs to figure out a way to put crooked numbers on the board in an environment where the ball is showing as much reluctance to go over the fence as a kid does about going to the dentist. (Sure, you can make ‘em, but you gotta be prepared for a fight.) While they managed to secure a relatively comfortable, easy win over Oakland in the series opener on Friday, starter JP Sears nonetheless lasted seven frames with a 5/2 K/BB ratio with a 110 xFIP- in the game, notably better than his 122 mark for the season. The Braves haven’t had an above-average xwOBA in any of their last five games, haven’t had back-to-back above-average xwOBA games since the doubleheader against the Padres on May 20, and really haven’t hit at all since a nice six-game stretch from May 8 through May 14, where they had at least a .340 xwOBA in each game. Scheduled Oakland starter Aaron Brooks (no, not the erstwhile quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, nor the erstwhile NBA player for the Houston Rockets, nor the U.S. olympian wrestler) is theoretically a prime matchup for the Braves to get back to mashing, but they’ll still actually have to do it.
The 34-year-old Brooks has had a career extolling the virtues of persistence, if little else. He made his MLB debut with the Royals back in 2014, and since then has bounced around seven different MLB organizations, as well as a two-year stint in the KBO, which ended when Korean customs found that a vape pen he had ordered contained traces of marijuana (you can’t make this stuff up). Brooks is currently in his third stint with the Athletics, and to date, his career has spanned 197 1⁄3 innings, including 31 starts and 24 relief appearances, where he has compiled 0.1 fWAR and a 149 ERA-, 125 FIP-, and 118 xFIP-. He was promoted to the majors on May 15 this year, and he’s had three very different starts to date.
In his 2024 debut, he stymied the Astros with a 5/1 K/BB ratio over seven innings, getting charged with three runs in a game that ended in a 3-0 shutout loss. He then had a fairly ugly game with a 3/1 K/BB ratio and two homers allowed in six innings to the Rockies, but Oakland rallied late to win it, 5-4. After that, it was another outing against Houston last Sunday, where he really scuffled with a 1/3 K/BB ratio and a homer allowed in 4 1⁄3 frames. Though five runs scored while he was pitching, four scored after a two-out error behidn him; as a result, his season line is 98/140/128, thanks to that error taking four runs off his ERA ledger.
Brooks is a relatively soft-throwing righty with decent command, and relies on his slider as a primary pitch. His fastballs are awful, so the key to him is pretty much waiting one out and mashing it. If the Braves can do that, maybe they’ll get a crooked number today after all.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, June 1, 4:10 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
TV: Bally Sports Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
XM Radio: Online only