Chris Sale was tested in more ways than one Sunday at CoolToday Park.
Making his first start of Grapefruit League action, Sale began his outing with two strikeouts, but then Twins left fielder Trevor Larnach bounced a chopper off the plate to the left of the mound that Sale tried to snag with a vertical leap.
“I felt very unathletic in that moment. Not my best effort,” said Sale who fractured his left rib cage after diving for a ground ball in June.
The rest of Sale’s outing was sharp.
In two innings of work, the 36-year-old struck out three and worked around two first-inning singles. He threw 37 pitches and topped out at 96 mph on his fastball.
Sale threw a first-pitch strike to all eight hitters he faced and got six swings and misses.
“Being able to kind of use the whole arsenal, throwing all my pitches in different counts, having guys on base, pitching out of the stretch and the windup — the first one is kind of on the rocks, but I was happy with what we did today.”
Possibly the opening day starter for the Braves, Sale is in his 15th spring training as part of a career that has included nine All-Star games and a National League Cy Young award in 2024 with the Braves. He said Sunday he didn’t have any trouble getting motivated to toe the rubber for another spring training game.
“This is a game you can’t be relaxed on, I don’t care what the circumstances are, if it’s a spring training game, if it’s Game 1, 120 or the last game of the year being the World Series,” Sale said. “If you don’t have a little bit of nerves or want to be here, it’s probably time to pack it up and take it to the house.”
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