Braves lose again as NL East lead shrinks to three games

They nearly pulled off a comeback Sunday before falling just short.

Against Giants closer Caleb Kilian in the ninth, Matt Olson ripped an opposite-field double to left to start the inning, but Drake Baldwin grounded out to short and Austin Riley rolled weakly to first (scoring Olson).

Pinch-hitter Dominic Smith ripped a single up the middle, keeping hope alive.

The Braves went to Mike Yastrzemski off the bench, and with two strikes, after pinch-runner Jorge Mateo had stolen second base, the former Giants outfielder struck out on a pitch in the dirt.

Kilian earned his sixth save of the season.

Sale was dominant for much of the game Sunday but done in by two costly errors from his defense. The Braves’ offense didn’t help matters by mustering just six hits — three from Olson.

The 37-year-old left-handed Sale threw 18 pitches at least 97-mph and two at 99.

“I’d rather trade that in for 99 wins all day,” Sale said. “There’s a lot of people helping me get to where I’m at right now staying healthy and staying locked-in. Just appreciative of that.”

After striking out the side in the fifth inning, Sale was in immediate trouble in the sixth after an infield hit from Luis Arraez and a looping single to center by Heliot Ramos. Rafael Devers then hit a slow chopper to third that stuck in Austin Riley’s glove, and when Riley tried to make a hurried throw to first it was in the dirt where Olson couldn’t make the scoop.

Riley’s throwing error allowed Arraez to score putting the Giants up 1-0.

Sale nearly got out of the inning with two strikeouts and a ground ball into shallow right fielded by Albies. Trying to spin and make an off-balance throw, Albies threw the ball away allowing another run to score.

Sale (8-6) deserved a better fate, leaving after six innings and having thrown 94 pitches. He struck out 10 — his most since fanning 11 on May 2 in Denver — and induced 19 whiffs to go with 11 called strikes.

“I felt like today was a better day with command. These longer layoffs, they’re not injury related, so I’m able to get a lot of throwing done in between these days,” said Sale, who last pitched June 20 before his Sunday start. “I’ve been able to get off the mound two, three, even four times in between starts. I felt like before we started kind of getting starts pushed back, command was just kind of a bigger thing, which it hasn’t been in the past. It was kind of fluky - it was in, it was out, it was in, it was out. Being able to get off the mound a lot more has been able (to help) to dial that in.”

Giants starter Robbie Ray had a no-hitter through four until Olson led off the fifth with a single up the middle. The Braves had gone 15 1/3 innings with just one hit against the Giants before that.

Ray, who threw 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball June 16 at Truist Park in a 7-2 Giants win, allowed a leadoff single to Eli White, on a 3-2 pitch, in the sixth and then walked Ha-Seong Kim. But then Mauricio Dubón and Michael Harris II both swung at consecutive pitches — Dubón popped to short and Harris hit a comebacker for a fielder’s choice.

Albies rolled a 1-0 pitch to third to end the inning, a series of at-bats that loomed large when the Giants (35-48) took the lead in the bottom half.

“These are the way things go when you’re not going well. Their stuff falls and yours doesn’t. That’s just the way it is right now,” Weiss said. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error, even for scoring runs. Every run we give up is a big one because we’re having a hard time scoring.”

To erase any doubt, in the bottom of the seventh against Braves’ reliever Didier Fuentes, the Giants added a run on an Arraez RBI sacrifice fly to right.

The Braves finally caught a break in the eighth when White reached on Matt Chapman’s error at third. With one out, Dubón shot a double down the line into the right field corner.

Harris flew out in foul territory down the left field line scoring White to finally get the Braves on the board. Albies popped out weakly to center ending the short-lived rally.

Ray (7-6) threw 95 pitches over eight innings and allowed just four hits and a run which was unearned.