Sale goes seven innings, as Braves best Phillies, win another series

PHILADELPHIA — Chris Sale and the Braves bested the Phillies on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, winning 3-1 and improving to 6-0-1 in the seven series they have played this season.

Sale (4-1) went seven strong innings, struck out seven and allowed one run on a solo home run. His seven strikeouts moved him into 29th place on MLB’s career strikeouts list, past Hall of Famer Tom Glavine (2,607). Sale’s 2,608 career strikeouts are the eighth-most by a left-handed pitcher.

“You start getting into these in-division games — we know who’s across the way,” Sale said. “They’re a really good team. You gotta kind of elevate your game a little bit. And we had a great game Friday. Martín (Pérez) really set the tone. Offense really did what they needed to do to kind of open that game up. Puts us in a position to sweep on the road.”

The veteran Sale threw 73 strikes out of his 101 pitches (72.3%) and got 14 whiffs, nine on his slider. He allowed only three base-runners between the third and seventh innings.

“He threw the ball really well, using all his pitches. That’s what future Hall of Famers do — they go out against division rivals and they give their best effort,” Braves catcher Jonah Heim said. “It was a lot of fun to be behind the plate for.”

Dylan Lee pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and Robert Saurez, who touched 101 mph, earned his first save of the season with a perfect ninth, as the Braves won their fourth straight.

Sunday’s series finale is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.

The Braves (14-7) scored all three of their runs in the third after falling behind in the second. It was just the seventh time this season the Braves have trailed first, and they have now won four of those seven games.

The Braves, who now have a five-game lead in the NL East, nearly had the lead one pitch into the game when Ronald Acuña Jr. ambushed Phillies’ starter Cristopher Sanchez’s first pitch with a 404-foot fly ball to dead center. But center fielder Brandon Marsh made a leaping catch before crashing into the wall and robbing a would-be home run.

Instead, it was the Phillies who cashed in first, getting a solo home run from Felix Reyes. Reyes was called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and was making his MLB debut. He got ahead 2-0 and then launched a 95-mph fastball into the seats in right.

Reyes celebrated the moment with a fist pump while rounding first, losing his batting helmet racing toward second, and pointing to the Philly faithful after crossing home and before going into the dugout.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to be on ESPN all day (Sunday),” Sale said of Reyes’ homer.

Sánchez was cruising early and had struck out four of five batters between the second and third innings. But then Drake Baldwin, who has now reached base in all 21 games this season, whistled a base hit back through the middle with one out in the third.

Ozzie Albies hit a routine ground ball to second but Edmundo Sosa dropped it. Matt Olson walked to load the bases. The red-hot Riley stepped in, and when it’s going good, it’s going good.

Riley’s swinging bunt couldn’t be fielded cleanly by Sánchez, allowing Baldwin to score to tie the game. Mauricio Dubón brought in two more with a pop-up that landed in the Bermuda Triangle behind second base.

After Sale served up the home run to Reyes, the Phillies only mustered three singles the rest of the way, and one of those base-runners was erased on a double play.

“I think just throwing strikes and really just kind of following (Heim’s) lead,” Sale said. “I really felt like he was on top of it. He did a really good job of mixing pitches in and out, hard, soft, in up, stuff down. My main focus is really just kind of following his lead and just trying to execute good pitches, make good quality pitches because that’s a helluva lineup.”