Braves takeaways: Chris Sale frustrated, Spencer Strider and Alex Verdugo coming soon

New York Times

14-04-2025

TAMPA, Fla. — One week after Joe Boyle allowed three hits and four walks in four innings against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, he played his music in the sun against the Atlanta Braves, not even allowing a runner to reach base until the fifth inning Sunday in the Tampa Bay Rays' 8-3 series-clinching win against the Braves and Chris Sale.
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On an afternoon when Boyle pitched the best game of his brief career, Sale's struggles continued when the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner gave up six hits and four runs (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings. The Braves have lost three of Sale's four starts and fell to 4-11 overall and 1-9 on the road, their only win away from Atlanta coming Saturday after a late-innings rally against the Rays.
It's tied the Braves' third-worst start since the franchise moved to Atlanta in 1966, with 2-13 starts in 1988 and 1990 the only ones worse.
'We just gotta win games, it's simple,' said Sale, who is 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA. 'And today I did my best to not allow that to happen. And as a whole, obviously we need to get things going. Just a frustrating game.'
Not for Boyle, whose most recent start was a week ago for the Triple-A Durham Bulls against the Space Cowboys, whom he held scoreless for four innings despite at least one runner reaching base every inning. He threw 79 pitches in four innings against the Space Cowboys, 74 in five-plus innings against the Braves.
The hard-throwing right-hander's career has been slowed by command issues, including 40 walks in 47 2/3 innings last season when he posted a 6.42 ERA as an Oakland Athletics rookie. But on Sunday, Boyle retired the first 13 Braves before Ozzie Albies walked with one out in the fifth.
'He threw the ball extremely well,' Braves manager Brian Snitker said. 'I mean, I saw the numbers from Triple A and here, and it was like he's kind of a high-walk guy. But he wasn't today. He was on.'
That one's a beauty pic.twitter.com/RJmY9eL7tY
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 13, 2025
Sale has lasted five or fewer innings and allowed three or more earned runs in each of his four starts, including 4 2/3 and 4 1/3 innings in his past two. In 2024, he had only two starts of fewer than five innings.
In his past two starts, he's given up 15 hits and nine runs (eight earned) in nine innings. His angry toss of the rosin bag to a spot several feet from the pitcher's mound during Sunday's game was an indication of his disappointment.
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Is he frustrated?
'That's a wild understatement,' he said. 'I just hate sucking, and I'm just bad. Simple.'
His average fastball velocity was 96.2 mph, up 3 mph from his previous season average, and he threw 10 pitches at 97.2 or above, including a 98 mph heater that appeared to be thrown with anger behind it. Sale was asked if the increased velocity was a positive he could take from the outing or if results outweighed anything like that.
'I mean, this game is definitely about results,' he said, 'but I guess if I'm going to suck, I might as well go out there and let it rip.'
Sale has allowed at least three earned runs in each of his four starts after giving up more than two earned runs in only three of 29 starts in 2024.
'I don't know if I've ever been this frustrated,' he said. 'Honestly. I mean, it's just, I feel like I'm just banging my f—ing head against the wall right now, and I'm getting nothing out of it.'
First baseman Matt Olson said of Sale: 'He's gonna be just fine. You can check the back of the baseball card on that one. You know the competitor and pitcher that he is. I'm sure it's not up to his standards, but there's not a person in here worried about that guy. He's a dawg. We love when he takes the mound, and that's how we feel about it.'
Sale said he's healthy. Pitching this way without an injury probably has made it all the more frustrating for the 36-year-old.
'Yeah, and I mean, it wasn't too long ago that I was doing pretty good,' Sale said. 'I felt like I had a good spring training. And then the lights flick on and it's go time, and I'm left behind.'
When asked about a first-inning throwing error by right fielder Jarred Kelenic that let in the second run, Sale said his results were no one's fault but his own and that his pitching performance was the weak link Sunday.
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'The last thing I'd ever do is point a finger at a teammate for making a mistake,' Sale said. 'I don't think there's any question who was the worst baseball player on that field today. And for me to sit here and try to say something about someone else making a mistake — this is baseball, this is sports, people make mistakes. And if you take one person off that field, I think we have a much better chance of winning that game, and I think we all know who that is.'
The Braves have Spencer Strider scheduled to make his season debut Wednesday when he starts the finale of a three-game series at Toronto. It'll be four days past the one-year anniversary of his internal-brace elbow surgery for a damaged UCL, Strider's second major elbow surgery in five years (he had Tommy John in 2019 while at Clemson).
The return of Strider, the 2023 MLB wins and strikeouts leader, is direly needed by the Braves, given Sale's struggles and Reynaldo López's arthroscopic shoulder surgery last week that's expected to sideline him for at least four months. Strider will follow the current ace of the staff, Spencer Schwellenbach, who starts Tuesday after Grant Holmes starts the series opener Monday.
It'll be the first time the Braves feature 'Spencer Squared' in their rotation because Schwellenbach was still in Double A one year ago when Strider left his second start with the elbow injury.
Alex Verdugo hit a three-run homer in the second inning of Triple-A Gwinnett's game Sunday at Norfolk and was pulled two innings later, fueling speculation that the veteran outfielder will be brought up and join Atlanta for its series in Toronto.
A Braves official said it was a scheduled lighter work day for Verdugo after he'd played all 14 innings of a doubleheader Saturday. However, all signs point to Verdugo joining the Braves this week, either in Toronto or when they begin a homestand Friday against the Minnesota Twins.
Verdugo signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Braves on March 20 and has been with Gwinnett to get at-bats and work into playing shape after missing most of spring training waiting for a suitable free-agent offer. He's played seven games for Gwinnett, hitting .182 (4-for-22) with a double, two homers, four RBIs and a .500 slugging percentage and .750 OPS.
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The Braves said they signed Verdugo for depth, but there was a sudden need for a lineup regular after left fielder Jurickson Profar was slapped with an 80-game performance-enhancing drugs suspension March 31.
Now, with Kelenic and Bryan De La Cruz both scuffling at the plate and neither playing particularly well defensively at the corner-outfield spots, the Braves could certainly use an upgrade if Verdugo, 28, is able to provide it.
The Braves are likely to have superstar right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. back by mid-May from his year-long rehab for knee surgery, at which point they could have Acuña and Verdugo as their primary corner outfielders, with Kelenic or De La Cruz as a fourth outfielder. Kelenic and De La Cruz have minor-league options, so one of them presumably will be sent to Triple A when Verdugo joins the team.
Boyle was better than he's been before, but the Braves also helped him by chasing plenty of pitches outside the strike zone.
Boyle struck out Michael Harris II and Austin Riley to start the game on three pitches apiece, all swinging, some borderline pitches and one to Harris well out of the zone.
Both runs charged to Boyle were unearned and came after he left the game. He hit Nick Allen with a pitch to start the sixth inning, then walked Eli White before being replaced by Mason Montgomery.
Allen advanced to third on a stolen base and catcher's throwing error and scored on a Harris groundout. After Marcell Ozuna reached on a two-out infield error, Olson hit an RBI single off the top of the left-field wall and Albies followed with a run-scoring single to get the Braves within a run, 4-3.
But that was it for offense from the sputtering Braves, who've scored the second-fewest runs in the majors (49 in 15 games) and rank in the bottom third of the majors in slugging percentage (.361) and OPS (.667). With runners in scoring position, the Braves are 28th in both batting average (.180) and OPS (.569).
'We just got to put everything together here,' Olson said.
The Rays tacked on four runs in the sixth off relievers Pierce Johnson and Enyel De Los Santos.
(Photo of Chris Sale: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)