Chris Sale shines again as Braves take series from Padres

Sale struck out the side in the sixth to conclude his day.

“I even told (Braves manager) Walt (Weiss), I said, ‘I know my pitch count’s up there, but I really felt like I started to kind of get into a groove a little bit, especially that last inning,’” Sale said. “I just felt like my arm slot kind of clicked and just kind of locked in, specifically with my slider. I just felt really comfortable. I felt strong still.

“Obviously, would have loved to have gone back out there, but I understand. It’s not about me. And our bullpen’s been great. As much as I hate coming out of games, it makes it a lot easier handing it over to our bullpen.”

Left-hander Dylan Dodd followed Sale and worked a perfect seventh inning. Right-hander Tyler Kinley served up a two-run homer to Ty France in the eighth before giving way to Danny Young, who got the final out of the inning.

Closer Raisel Iglesias earned his 21st save with a scoreless ninth to preserve the Braves’ 22nd series win of the season (matching their 2025 total) and make them 51-1 when leading after eight innings.

Offensively, the Braves (60-42) hit four home runs and are 32-7 this season in multihomer games. They became the third MLB team to reach the 60-win mark.

Thursday’s victory was the Braves’ 30th of the comeback variety after they were in an early 3-0 hole.

Sale got himself in a pickle in the second when Gavin Sheets rolled a single up the middle, and Freddy Fermin reached when his fly ball to left was misjudged by Mauricio Dubón and fell in safely for a hit.

Sale plunked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases, then walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to give the Padres (50-53) a 1-0 lead. Luis Rengifo added insult to injury with a two-run single to right center, making it 3-0.

In 18 previous starts this season, Sale only allowed at least three earned runs three times.

“I just knew what my job was,” Sale said of his mindset after allowing three runs. “I wasn’t able to pick up one of my guys. Hitting a guy, walking a guy and then giving up an 0-2 hit, that’s enough to just piss you off a little bit. I really felt like I let our guys down in that situation.

“My job after that — I can’t erase the three runs, but I can do my best to just keep them at three because three’s a solid number to have a chance in that game. Once you start getting to four and five runs, then that’s just such a big hole. But our offense, three runs, I still felt confident, I still felt good where we were at, especially as of late. So just keep them at bay for as long as possible.”

The Padres used reliever Kyle Hart to begin Thursday’s game before turning to starter Griffin Canning (1-9). Michael Harris II gave him a rude greeting by crushing Canning’s second pitch into the Chop House seats above the right field wall.

It was Harris’ 19th home — one shy of his career high and his fifth of July.

Ozzie Albies led off the bottom of the fourth with his 16th home run, a 398-foot shot to right that cut the score to 3-2. Later in the inning, with two on and two out, Dominic Smith hit his first homer since June 6, a 392-foot shot to right that gave the Braves their first lead at 5-3.

After watching the ball land in the seats, Smith flung his bat away and had some choice words for his teammates in the dugout.

“Just trying to fire the boys up,” Smith said. “This year we had a lot of big moments, and it was, in my opinion, for me, just showing them that it’s a team game and everybody got to play their part.”

Drake Baldwin provided some insurance in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to right, the 19th of the season for the Braves catcher. Baldwin, during his 2025 National League Rookie of the Year season, also hit 19 homers.

Baldwin’s blast, in the end, turned out to be the game-winner.