Thursday, August 27, 2026 — a 37-year-old left-hander finishes a sweep, and a February contract decision suddenly looks prescient.
Chris Sale threw a five-hit, 11-strikeout, no-walk shutout on Thursday as the Braves beat the Dodgers 1-0 and completed a three-game sweep. In the third inning he fired a 100.1 mph fastball to Shohei Ohtani — his first triple-digit pitch since July 2018.
The headline is the performance. The story underneath it is the contract Atlanta signed him to six months ago.
The Night
The only run came on the game’s first pitch, a Drake Baldwin homer off Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Sale made it hold up by himself.
He needed only 60 pitches through five innings and 81 through seven, finishing with 109 — 80 of them strikes. Two innings after the 100.1 mph pitch, he struck Ohtani out on a 99.6 mph fastball above the zone, his second-hardest pitch in eight years.
Walt Weiss planned to turn the ninth over to the bullpen. Sale told him the game was his. Weiss later said his ace had been “on a mission” and described the outing in Hall of Fame terms. It was Sale’s first complete game since 2019 with Boston, and he did it on a day he learned a friend had died.
The Numbers Are Absurd for 37
Sale is 37 years and 150 days old. He is the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout with at least 10 strikeouts and no walks since Randy Johnson’s perfect game in 2004 — which, fittingly, came against the Braves.
- 13-9 with a 2.06 ERA, second in the majors behind only Jacob Misiorowski
- 21 consecutive starts without allowing more than three runs
- Four double-digit strikeout games this season
- His 28th career game with 10-plus strikeouts and no runs allowed, tying Max Scherzer for fifth since 1893
This is not a veteran hanging on. This is one of the two or three best starting pitchers in the National League.
The Contract That Looks Better Every Week
In February, Atlanta and Sale agreed to a new deal adding $27 million for 2027, plus a $30 million club option for 2028 covering his age-39 season. Sale had been slated for free agency after this year.
At the time, the reaction was split. Sale was coming off a 2025 limited by a fractured rib, and committing $27 million to a pitcher entering his late 30s carried obvious risk. Since joining the Braves he had posted a 2.46 ERA with a 32.2 percent strikeout rate — elite numbers, but in a limited number of innings.
Thursday is the clearest evidence yet of what Atlanta was betting on. A pitcher whose velocity is still climbing at 37 is not a pitcher in decline. Had Sale reached the open market this winter with a sub-2.10 ERA and a fastball touching 100, a one-year deal would have been the floor of the conversation, not the ceiling — and the Braves would have been bidding against everyone.
Instead, Alex Anthopoulos locked in a fixed price before the season and kept control of 2028 as well. For a front office that has built its reputation on early, team-friendly commitments, this one may age as well as any of them.
What the Sweep Means
The Braves have now won four straight and sit at 79-55, one game behind Los Angeles for the National League’s second seed and a first-round bye. They also clinched the season series against the Dodgers, which gives them the tiebreaker.
Effectively, the race for the bye is a dead heat that Atlanta wins on a tie. With the Dodgers absorbing Roki Sasaki’s trip to the injured list this week, the momentum in that race has swung hard toward Georgia.
The Bigger Picture
A first-round bye means rest, and rest matters more for a rotation fronted by a 37-year-old than for almost anyone else. If Atlanta secures it, Sale could start Game 1 of a Division Series on full rest after the regular season ends — the exact scenario the Braves envisioned when they decided not to let him reach free agency.
For now, the takeaway is simple. The best fastball Chris Sale has thrown in eight years came in late August, against the two-time defending champions, in the middle of a pennant race. Atlanta paid for the 2027 version of that pitcher in February. It is looking like a bargain.
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