Braves takeaways: Chris Sale makes history, batters rough up Zack Wheeler again, more
PHILADELPHIA — On a long and painful day that journeyed into night, the Atlanta Braves desperately needed something good to happen in the second game of their doubleheader Thursday against the rival Philadelphia Phillies.
They got it.
After losing both a game and a key starting pitcher in the doubleheader opener, the Braves got a terrific start from Chris Sale in the nightcap, along with a four-RBI game from Austin Riley and a two-run homer from Ozzie Albies to highlight a four-run fourth inning in a 9-3 win against the Phillies and ace Zack Wheeler.
Advertisement
The Braves knocked Wheeler around for the second time this season, while Sale allowed two hits in six scoreless innings to continue his dominant stretch of pitching. He also struck out eight to become the fastest in MLB history to 2,500 strikeouts, surpassing one of his boyhood idols, Randy Johnson, to claim that distinction.
'It's special, and I appreciate it for what it is,' said Sale, who has exactly 2,500 strikeouts in 2,026 innings, ahead of Johnson's previous mark of 2,107 2/3 innings. 'But I try not to get too caught up in stuff like that right now. I know what our job is here. No matter whether you have a good one or a bad one, the next one is the most important one. I do appreciate it, though. He was a guy I looked up to as a baseball player when I was a kid. And I tried to do everything I could to be like him.'
Riley said of Sale: 'It's impressive to be able to do it as long as he has. And especially (after) those years where he was battling some injuries; I think that's probably made it even more sweeter for him. I love playing behind him. He goes to war with us, so I'm really happy for him.'
Strikeout No. 2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ for Chris Sale! 👏 pic.twitter.com/0vgBq2v2l9
— MLB (@MLB) May 30, 2025
More than his own accomplishment, Sale was pleased the Braves averted a series sweep and could have a happy flight home before facing the Boston Red Sox. They are still a substantial 9 ½ games behind the NL East-leading Phillies and 7 ½ behind the second-place New York Mets.
They are 26-29, including 3-3 against the Phillies. Philadelphia won Thursday's opener, 5-4, going ahead on a base-loaded hit-by-pitch in the eighth inning before the Braves left them loaded in the ninth.
The bigger loss for Atlanta was pitcher A.J. Smith-Shawver, who left in the third inning after feeling a 'pop' in his elbow. He returned to Atlanta ahead of the team to have an MRI that the Braves hope won't reveal an injury as serious as they fear.
Sale is 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA in his past seven starts after going 0-2 with a 6.17 ERA in his first five. He has 54 strikeouts and 12 walks in 44 1/3 innings over this torrid stretch.
'I mean, I just feel like he was in the zone, slider was there — kind of adding (and) subtracting with it, spotting up some fastballs in some different areas,' Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. 'He's always tough. You never go in that at-bat thinking it's going to be an easy at-bat, right? He won the Cy Young last year, and you just have to try to fight and grind him whenever he does make that mistake, try to get to it.'
Advertisement
Wheeler finished second to Sale in last year's Cy Young balloting and was the NL's hottest pitcher in recent weeks, riding a 22 2/3-inning scoreless streak that included six or seven scoreless innings in each of his past three starts.
But the Atlanta-area native has struggled against the Braves several times in recent years, and was charged with season-highs of six runs and four walks in 5 1/3 innings Thursday. He gave up four hits, all consecutively with one out in the fourth inning: Marcell Ozuna single, Matt Olson double, Riley two-run double, Albies homer.
'I mean, you're talking about one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team in the league right now,' Sale said of the Phillies. 'Also talking about the best starting pitcher in the league for a handful of years now, too. So we knew what we had ahead of us, and for the boys to come out and get something going there (in the fourth inning) — and it didn't end. It was four this inning, a couple more here, a couple more there. So it's some good momentum to take back home.'
The Braves have handled Wheeler like no other team has this season. His worst two starts of 2025 have been against them, including an April 8 game in Atlanta when he allowed eight hits and five runs in 5 1/3 innings. That's 11 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings for a 9.28 ERA against the Braves, and a 1.93 ERA in 10 starts against everyone else.
'We had a plan and we stayed to it, and we were ready to attack when he made mistakes,' said Albies, who has a 14-game hitting streak and hit a first-pitch splitter for the first homer off a Wheeler splitter since 2018. 'I mean, I'll keep it real, I wasn't looking for a splitter. But I was looking for something in the zone to do damage to, and he left me a splitter hanging.'
The last two runs on Wheeler's ledger scored on Luke Williams' two-run single in the sixth off Carlos Hernández, after Wheeler walked Riley and Albies consecutively. Riley added a two-run homer in the seventh off Joe Ross.
Braves fans watching at home — and those scattered among the crowd at Citizens Bank Park — might've wondered what Albies was doing in Thursday's opener trying to steal second base in the ninth inning of a one-run game with no outs and the heart of Atlanta's lineup coming to bat. You weren't alone.
After Albies was thrown out, the Braves loaded the bases with two outs on an Ozuna walk, Olson single and Sean Murphy walk. Eli White struck out to leave them loaded. It was easy to wonder what might've happened had Albies not tried to steal and been thrown out by Rafael Marchán, which capped a memorable game for Philly's backup catcher — two runners caught stealing, a two-run homer, a walk and a game-winning, bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.
Advertisement
Asked about it afterward, manager Brian Snitker said, 'Well, it's just a (pitcher) that we should be able to steal the base (on). I mean, he's upwards of 1.6 (seconds) to the plate.'
Snitker said, 'Evidently the jump wasn't real good.'
Just to be clear, I asked Snitker if Albies was running on his own.
'Yeah,' Snitker said, ending the subject.
Albies was the second Braves runner to test Marchán's arm Thursday. The first, Stuart Fairchild, fared even worse.
Not only was Fairchild thrown out trying to steal second base for the third out of the fourth inning, but he also dislocated his right pinky finger while sliding hands-first. He wasn't wearing one of the 'oven mitt' protective hand coverings that so many players use.
Fairchild will be examined in Atlanta on Friday morning. He'll land on the 15-day IL with Jarred Kelenic likely to be recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to replace him.
Snitker planned to rest Ronald Acuña Jr. for the first game Thursday and play him in the nightcap, but turned to the star to replace Fairchild in the bottom of the fourth. Acuña had an RBI single and a double in two plate appearances in the first game, and was on deck when White struck out with the bases loaded to end the game.
Acuña has played every game since he was activated May 23, though the Braves had two days off in that span, including Wednesday when the game was postponed by rain.
The bullpen has been an issue recently with the Braves, and here's one new potential problem: Daysbel Hernández might not be ready for the highest-leverage spots in important games.
He entered Thursday's first game to start the eighth inning and gave up a Nick Castellanos single and Max Kepler walk. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, Hernández walked Brandon Marsh to load the bases before grazing Marchán's foot with a pitch that brought in the final run of the game.
Advertisement
In Tuesday's series opener, Hernández entered to start the eighth, the Braves trailing 1-0. He retired the first two, then surrendered singles to Alec Bohm and Castellanos, each when ahead in the count. Those were followed by consecutive walks to Kepler and to J.T. Realmuto, the latter with the bases loaded.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
35 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
‘Hollywood High' Review: How Teens Took Over the Screen
Reality shapes the movies, and the movies reshape reality, which makes its way back into film. In the 1950s, for instance, widespread dismay, sensational media coverage and even congressional hearings revolved around the crisis of juvenile delinquency, which yielded a spate of what's-wrong-with-young-people features, many of them cheesy and laughable. Among the few that gained a hold on the public imagination was 'Rebel Without a Cause' (1955), a fairly terrible teen soap that became iconic because its point of view was sympathetic to its desperate youth and because its charismatic young lead, James Dean, had died in a car wreck less than a month before it was released. The car Dean's character drove, a Mercury, became the hot-rodders' 'vehicle of choice through most of the 1950s,' writes Bruce Handy in 'Hollywood High: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of Teen Movies.' A hoodlum in 'American Graffiti' (1973), another defining movie about youth, made a generation later, also drove a Mercury. That film takes place over a single night in 1962, and the choice of car was a joke on its driver, an illustration of a comical urge to cling to a faded past even among young people. 'Rock and roll has been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died,' the film's gearhead hero, John, observes; 1973 looked back to 1962, when everyone was sighing about 1959. Most of the songs on the celebrated soundtrack were already oldies on the night it takes place. The movie harbored a droll sensitivity for early-onset nostalgia. Mr. Handy's teen-mag title and his book's colorful packaging belie the author's seriousness about his subject. A veteran magazine journalist whose credits include a stint at Vanity Fair, he writes with the lively appreciation of a fan rather than with condescension or academic pedantry, combining astute cultural analysis with fascinating trivia.
The Verge
35 minutes ago
- The Verge
The Access-Ability Summer Showcase returns with the latest in accessible games
Now in its third year, the Access-Ability Summer Showcase is back to redress the lack of meaningful accessibility information across the ongoing video game showcase season. As we see progress broadly slow down, it's also a timely reminder of the good work that's still happening in pursuit of greater accessibility in gaming. 'At a time where we are seeing a slowdown in accessibility adoption in the AAA games space,' organizer Laura Kate Dale says, 'we're showing that there are interesting accessible games being made, games with unique and interesting features, and that being accessible is something that can bring an additional audience to purchase and play your games.' The showcase is growing, too. In 2025, it's longer, more packed with games, and streamed concurrently on Twitch, Youtube (where it's also available on-demand), and on Steam's front page. That growth comes with its own challenges — mitigated this year by Many Cats Studio stepping in as sponsor — but the AA Summer Showcase provides an accessible platform in response to the eye-watering costs of showcasing elsewhere (it has previously been reported that presenting trailers across Summer Game Fest starts at $250,000), while providing disabled viewers with the information they need to know if they can actually get excited about new and upcoming releases. It's lesson Dale hopes other platforms might take on board. 'I grow the show in the hopes that other showcases copy what we're doing and make this the norm,' she says. 'If I could quit hosting the AA Summer Showcase next year because every other show in June committed to talking about accessibility as part of their announcements, that would be wonderful news.' To help that along (sorry, Laura, don't quit just yet), The Verge has collated the games featured in this year's Access-Ability Summer Showcase below. Visual accessibility in focus A major theme that emerged from this year's showcase is color blind considerations. The showcase kicked off with ChromaGun2: Dye Hard by Pixel Maniacs, a first-person color-based puzzler. In its color blind mode, colors are paired with symbols for better parsing and those symbols combine when colors are mixed. A similar spirit is echoed in Sword and Quill's Soulblaze, a creature-collecting roguelike that's a bit of Pokémon mixed with tabletop RPGs (dice included). It also pairs colors and icons, adding a high level of customization to color indicators, difficulty, and an extensive text-to-speech function that supports native text-to-speech systems and NVDA. Later, Gales of Nayeli from Blindcoco Studios, a grid-based strategy RPG, showcased its own color blind considerations and an impressive array of visual customization options. Room to breathe A welcome trend carried over from last year, games continue to eschew time pressure and fail states. Dire Kittens Games' Heartspell: Horizon Academy is a puzzle dating simulator that feels like Bejeweled meets Hatoful Boyfriend. Perhaps its most welcome feature is the ability to skip puzzles altogether, though it also features customization for puzzle difficulty. Sunlight from Krillbite Studio is a chill hiking adventure that tasks the player with picking flowers while walking through a serene forest. It does away with navigation as you'll always be heading the right way, while sound cues direct you to nearby flowers. This year's showcase featured two titles from DarZal Games. Quest Giver is a low-stakes management visual novel which casts the player as an NPC handing quests out to RPG heroes, while 6-Sided Stories is a puzzle game involving flipping tiles to reveal an image. The games were presented by Darzington, a developer with chronic hand pain who develops with those needs in mind and, interestingly, with their voice (thanks to Talon Voice). Both games feature no time pressure, no input holds or combos, and allow for one-handed play. Single-handed controls are also a highlight of Crayonix Games' Rollick N' Roll, a puzzle game in which you control the level itself to get toy cars to their goal without the burden of a ticking clock. Highlighting highlights Speaking of highlights, this was another interesting trend to emerge from this year's showcase. Spray Paint Simulator by Whitethorn Games is, in essence, PowerWash Simulator in reverse. Among a suite of accessibility features that help players chill out and paint everything from walls and bridges to what looks like Iron Man's foot, the game allows you to highlight painting tasks and grants a significant level of control over how those highlights appear and how long they last. Whitethorn Games provides accessibility information for all its games here. Cairn, by contrast, is a challenging climbing game from The Game Bakers which looks like transplanting Octodad onto El Capitan. As it encourages players to find new routes up its mountains, the game allows players to highlight their character's limbs, as well as skip quick reaction minigames and rewind falls completely. Highlights are also important to Half Sunk Games' Blow-up: Avenge Humanity, in which players can desaturate the background and customize the size and tone of enemy outlines to make its chaotic gunplay more visible. Something Qudical's Coming Home, which debuted during the showcase, also offers in its tense horror gameplay as you evade a group of murderers. You can switch on a high-contrast mode that highlights objects to distinguish them from the environment (including said killers). Unsighted If this year's been challenging for accessibility, it's been even more disappointing for blind players when it comes to games that are playable independently. The AA Summer Showcase, however, included an interlude showing off the best titles from the recent Games for Blind Gamers 4, a game jam in which all games are designed with unsighted play in mind and judged by blind players. Four games were featured: Lacus Opportunitas by one of last year's standouts shiftBacktick, The Unseen Awakening, Barista, and Necromancer Nonsense. This was chased by a look at Tempo Labs Games' Bits & Bops, a collection of rhythm games with simple controls and designed to be playable in its entirety without sighted assistance. A difficult subject Accessible indie games often favor the cozy, but this year's AA Summer Showcase brought a standout game that bucked that trend. Wednesdays by ARTE France is a game that deals with the aftermath of childhood abuse. That's certainly in keeping with the host of trauma-driven indie games out there. Wednesdays, however, positions itself as a more hopeful examination of that trauma, both through its visual novel style memories and theme park manager gameplay. Like so many of the showcase's games this year, Wednesdays includes mitigations for color blindness — though no essential information is tied to color in-game — as well as a comprehensive text log for cognitive support, manual and automated text scrolling, and customization options for cursor speed, animations, fonts, inputs, and more. Better yet, all those options are displayed at launch and the game always opens in a windowed mode to allow for easier setup of external accessibility tools.
News24
39 minutes ago
- News24
MultiChoice warns of ‘unprecedented financial disruption' in trading update
Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once. Start your FREE trial now Show Comments ()
