‘Sick as a dog’ Chris Sale leads Braves to win over A’s

“Hall of famers, they just operate differently, and that’s what he is. It was an unbelievable performance considering the circumstances. In an early game too, on regular rest, all those things. He’s a warrior.”

Weiss’ revelation about Sale came after Sale had already spoken to reporters. Sale was asked first about the velocity of his pitches, all four of which were significantly (and maybe alarmingly) slower than usual.

The left-hander’s fastball was reaching the plate at 92.5 mph on average. His slider was a bit under 76. There was a 96-mph fastball in there a time or two, but for the most part the A’s lineup was probably even a bit thrown off by the Sale they saw versus the Sale they had expected to face.

Sale, however, never revealed anything about why he was a little off in the velocity department Wednesday.

“Just kind of one of those days. I kind of noticed it in my pregame bullpen,” Sale said. “You’re not gonna have your best stuff every time. I really just tried to focus on raising my focus. Reaching for more stuff when it’s just not there is just not really the way, and I knew I had to find a way to win this game. Just really focused on more location than trying to ‘out-stuff’ guys today.”

The competitive plan more than worked.

Sale retired the first 11 batters he faced by getting five fly outs, a pop up, three grounders and a pair of Ks. Sale then made his one and only mistake of the day, grooving a 1-0, 92-mph fastball on the inner half of the plate that Shea Langeliers pulled down the left field line and into the visitor’s bullpen for a solo home run.

That was the lone hit Sale would surrender, retiring the next seven hitters before exiting after six innings and 79 pitches.

“You could see in my pregame bullpen that my stuff — my stuff was actually pretty good. The shape of all my stuff was exactly how I wanted it: the change-up, the breaking ball, everything. It just didn’t have that, kind of, little extra hop to it today,” Sale said. “I think ‘Baldy’ (catcher Drake Baldwin) noticed that early on and used that to our advantage. He wasn’t trying to force anything.

“He saw that, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have to navigate through this lineup a little bit differently than we do in the past.’ I even told him, I said, ‘Hey, I know today wasn’t easy for you to get me through that. So, hell of a job.’”

Baldwin, in the Braves’ clubhouse, said he appreciated the tip of the hat from Sale, but that the veteran southpaw deserved the spotlight. Baldwin just tried to make sure Sale was well-rested between innings, he added.

“We knew about (the illness). He’s a competitor,” Baldwin said. “He’s gonna go out on the mound and we know he’s gonna give it his best no matter how he’s feeling. We were definitely aware, but we knew he could do it.”

Sale’s sick performance helped the Braves take a three-game series from the A’s and move to 4-2 after opening the season by taking 2 of 3 from the Royals. Sale (2-0) earned wins in both those series and has allowed just four hits, one run and three walks in 12 innings while striking out nine in his two starts of 2026.

The second of those two starts, though, may set the tone for the rest of the Braves’ season.

“It raises the bar. That’s why when you have guys like that, that’s what it does. Culturally, competitively, it just raises the bar,” Weiss said. “That’s what Sale’s been doing his whole career.”