The Atlanta Braves avoided a sweep Monday evening by salvaging a 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres in the nightcap of Monday’s twin bill. It was a nice bounce back after blowing a 5-0 lead in a 6-5 loss in the early game. Below are some takeaways from the series as Atlanta gets set to head back out on the road.
Chris Sale’s dominant May continues
It seems like Chris Sale always leads this column, but that is for good reason. Sale played the role of stopper in dominant fashion, tossing seven scoreless innings while racking up nine more strikeouts. Sale has been nothing short of incredible and now has now gone 20 straight innings without being charged with a run. May has seen him get charged with just a single guy crossing the plate through 25 innings, while racking up 37 strikeouts and issuign just one measly walk. Monday’s start was the fourth straight game where he has logged at least nine strikeouts.
Sale has put to rest any of the concerns people had for him coming into the season. He insisted that he was healthy for the first time in several seasons and show plenty of durability, logging at least six innings in six of his nine starts. He still needs to stay healthy, and while there were few doubts about his talent level provided he could stay on the mound, he’s surpassed even the lofty expectations for how well he’d pitch when able to at this point.
Rare bullpen hiccup for Joe Jimenez
The Braves blew a five run lead in the early game of Monday’s doubleheader. That was just the second time in 62 games over the last two seasons that Atlanta had lost a game in which it had a five-run lead. The only other loss came last season on June 23 in Cincinnati where they built a 5-0 lead but ended up losing 11-10.
Joe Jimenez was charged wtih three hits, two walks and a season high four runs in the decisive eighth inning. Prior to Monday’s appearance, Jimenez had allowed a total of three runs in his first 17 appearances combined.
While the pitching staff as a whole has been a bit bitten by the homer bug, Jimenez has been somewhat the opposite. He still hasn’t allowed a homer on the year, but he now has a pretty unimpressive 18/7 K/BB ratio. While he had managed to strand a bunch of runners in other outings where he scuffled, things went south on him and the Braves today. After starting the season with an 11/1 K/BB ratio in his first 10 innings of work, he now has six walks and just seven strikeouts in his last eight innings and appearances.
Marcell Ozuna extends hitting streak
Marcell Ozuna homered in both games of the doubleheader and extended his hitting streak to 13 straight games. Ozuna is the only hitter in the majors with two hitting streaks of at least 10 games so far. He hit safely in 17 straight games from March 30 through April 19.
Ozuna leads the National League with 14 home runs and regained the major league lead with 43 RBIs. He is hitting .327/.415/.655 with five homers and 12 RBI in May.
Losing streak snapped
The Braves have now gone 914 games without a losing streak of at least five games, which dates back to September 2017. That is the second-longest streak in Major League history and trails only the New York Yankees who went 1,243 games between five game skids from 1930-38.
