On a night he was named an All-Star for the third straight season and 10th time in his career, pitcher Chris Sale led the Braves in an 14-3 blasting of the Mets on Saturday at Truist Park.
Sale went five-plus innings, worked around seven hits, walked two, struck out three and allowed three runs on what would not be considered his best start of the season. Yet he was competitive enough to hold the Braves’ early lead before turning it over to his mates in the bullpen.
And getting 14 runs of support added icing to the cake that was, in the end, a special day.
“It’s special, and I appreciate it. It’s just crazy to think about, honestly,” Sale said of being an All-Star for the 10th time in his career. “I try to look at myself the same way I always have. And even just talking with some of the guys, like I remember being a 9-year-old kid, 12-year-old kid, going through high school, getting into college, you make it to the big leagues and — there’s nothing like the first one (All-Star Game). The first one’s always, I think, the most special.
“But this is something that I enjoyed watching with my dad when I was a kid. I always watched the All-Star Game, we watched Home Run Derby, so I’ll never take it lightly, and I’ll never take it for granted, and I’ll always appreciate it.”
Sale’s first serious blemish of the night Saturday didn’t come until the fifth when the 1-2 fastball he threw to Tyrone Taylor was hammered into the seats in left. Taylor’s solo shot was the first home run Sale had allowed in 46⅔ innings, which was the longest active streak by a starting pitcher in MLB.
Sale’s second mistake was a 2-2 fastball up and in to Mark Vientos that Vientos belted out to left for a two-run homer in the sixth. That cut the Braves’ lead, which was once 6-0, to 6-3.
Sale left later in the sixth after hitting Francisco Alvarez with a full-count pitch. The Truist Park faithful still appreciated the effort, showering Sale with applause as he strode toward the home dugout.
“It just seemed like (the Mets) figured something out in that last inning,” Sale said. “I don’t know if my stuff got a little flatter, or if they just found a way to get through it. Just seemed like they were kinda on everything there in that last inning.
“It was a pretty good start up until then, and then the train kind of got off the tracks there a little bit. But, hey, guys picked me up when I needed ‘em to and that’s what this game is about. When your offense explodes like that, you can kind of have a (bad) one and it’ll sneak by.”
The veteran left-handed Sale was given an early lead to work with and never looked back.
Eli White hit his fourth home run of the season in the second inning, a solo shot that carried into the left field corner and sneaked over the wall. It was the right fielder’s first homer since June 13, which came against the Mets (36-53) in New York.
Michael Harris II’s RBI single to right with two outs and the bases loaded in the third put the Braves up 2-0. That brought up White, who was jammed on a 1-0 cutter and hit an innocent and lazy fly ball behind shortstop for what should have been the third out of the inning.
But Taylor, playing center field, and Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor got to the ball at the same time — Lindor hit the deck at the last second, Taylor dropped the ball and Braves base runners were off to the races for what was scored a double.
It gave the Braves a 5-0 lead and White four RBIs in two at-bats, and also gave the Braves four straight games scoring at least five runs for the first time since May 19-22.
With one out in the fourth, Mauricio Dubón jumped on a hanging change-up in a 2-2 count and launched his ninth home run of the season just inside the left-field foul pole. Dubón is now one homer shy of his career high for home runs in a single season set in 2023 with the Astros.
After Sale (9-6) departed in the sixth, Dylan Lee entered a two-on, none-out situation and did what Lee has been doing all season. He followed his All-Star teammate by pitching like one himself and struck out all three batters he faced on 11 pitches.
That allowed the momentum to shift away from the visitors, and the Braves (52-35) seized the moment in the bottom half of the inning. Joey Bart belted an RBI double off the wall in center, and Dubón plated another with an RBI groundout to second, both runs coming against Mets reliever Austin Warren.
In the seventh, Mike Yastrzemski made Warren pay for a 3-2 sinker down the heart of the plate. Yastrzemski obliterated the pitch for his fifth homer of the season, a two-run shot that landed on the second level of the Chop House in right.
Austin Riley’s three-run, opposite-field homer in the eighth gave the Braves a 13-3 lead. The Mets raised the white flag and put catcher Luis Torrens on the mound after that, and Harris launched a solo homer to right, his 16th of the season.
“Tonight was fun. Obviously, the offense exploding, it’s a lot of fun to watch,” Sale said. “And that’s why you never really hit the panic button. That’s why the alarms don’t set off. You stay the course, you bunker down when the rain gets heavy, but you know what’s on the other side of that can be a night like tonight.”
JR Ritchie, scheduled to start for Triple-A Gwinnett on Saturday before being called up to the Braves, closed out the game with three scoreless innings. He was credited with a save for his efforts.
Mets starter Sean Manaea (1-4) was charged with six earned runs on six hits.
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