Sale socked for six in Braves’ loss to Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Chris Sale was sick his last time out. On Monday he probably wished he had been.

A rare disastrous start from Sale did the Braves in Monday in a 6-2 loss to the Angels at Angels Stadium.

Sale, 8-0 in 11 career appearances against the Angels and 2-0 this season having allowed a single run, saw the wheels come off in a three-run fourth inning, and then the vehicle crashed out in the fifth after allowing a hit and a homer.

The six earned runs allowed by Sale (2-1) were his most since the Athletics got the former Cy Young Award winner for eight June 1, 2024.

“I expect to do well every time,” Sale said. “I know those are unrealistic expectations, but I can’t find a single person in this room or anyone I’ve ever played with who would be OK with going out there and doing what I did tonight. I know this is sports and things like this happen, but I gotta be better than that.”

All of Sale’s misfortunes came after the distant memory of a brief Braves lead.

As is becoming somewhat of a daily occurrence, Drake Baldwin got the Braves (6-5) on the board first with a solo homer in the team’s first at-bat. Baldwin took a 1-2, 98-mph fastball from José Soriano and crushed it nearly 400 feet into the stands in right for the catcher’s fifth home run in 11 games.

Not to be outdone, Zach Neto took Sale’s first pitch of the cool California night and belted it way over the left field wall, making it 1-1.

Sale was humming right along after that, setting down nine straight and striking out six in the process. The fourth inning was a different story, and Sale indicated the first three innings were fool’s gold.

“I think it was just a constant battle from the jump,” he said. “I was getting away with some fastballs that were still out over the plate, just kind of either getting swings and misses or foul balls. But, hey, we got some time to go to the drawing board and figure out what it was and try to right the wrong.”

A 1-2 slider grazed Jorge Soler’s foot. Jo Adell singled to right. Jeimer Candelario walked. Logan O’Hoppe walked on seven pitches to bring in a run.

After a force out at home, Yoán Moncada took a slider on the kneecap to bring in another run, making it 3-1. Bryce Teodosio reached on an infield single in the hole between third and shortstop, and it was suddenly 4-1.

Sale got the final two outs of the inning, but only after the Angels (6-5) had plated three runs despite only one hit and nary a ball leaving the infield. Sale threw 33 pitches in the frame.

“Just bad command. Just one of those rare nights where it’s going left, it’s going right, and just kind of standing out there not really knowing how to fix the problem that I was having,” Sale said. “And they had a good approach. They took advantage of every opportunity that came with it. Swung the bats well and I just didn’t have it.”

Adell’s two-run homer to left center in the fifth put the nail in Sale’s coffin. He departed having thrown 77 pitches, and his seven strikeouts were of little consolation.

Soriano (3-0), who Braves manager Walt Weiss called, “one of the best-kept secrets in the game” before Monday’s matchup, was in cruise control after Baldwin’s homer. The hard-throwing righty set down 19 straight before Mike Yastrzemski’s hard-hit single to left to lead off the eighth.

Soriano struck out 10 and lowered his ERA to 0.45.