ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a leadoff homer and Chris Sale completed one out shy of a shutout, serving to the Braves declare a 5-0 win over the Mets on Wednesday evening at Truist Park.
Acuña’s thirty sixth profession leadoff homer sparked a three-run first inning and supplied an early lead for Sale, who strengthened his bid for a second straight Nationwide League Cy Younger Award by limiting the Mets to 5 hits over 8 2/3 innings. The 36-year-old hurler was eliminated after Brandon Nimmo planted a two-out single into shallow left discipline.
Sale, who has a 1.23 ERA over his previous 10 begins, started the ultimate inning by making an awesome diving seize of a Juan Soto dribbler to the left of the mound. He struck out Pete Alonso earlier than his 116-pitch gem ended with Nimmo’s single.
The hometown crowd booed Brian Snitker’s choice to take away Sale. However the lefty appeared to say “Thanks” to his supervisor for at the least letting him attempt to notch what would have been his first shutout since 2019.
Given the Braves are slightly greater than per week faraway from enduring a 3-14 stretch, it might sound much more ridiculous to surprise if they may realistically erase the 11-game NL East deficit that separates them from the Mets, who’ve misplaced 5 straight video games. However the comeback wouldn’t essentially be utterly unprecedented.
At this similar level (90 video games remaining) of the 2022 season, the Braves trailed the Mets by 5 video games within the standings. However they had been seven video games again with simply 40 video games to play. Each groups ended with 101 wins, however Atlanta received the division title courtesy of a greater head-to-head file.
