mauricio dubón is back in the center of a high-profile series opener, with Chris Sale set to start Friday night for the Atlanta Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sale takes the ball with a 6-1 record and a 2.14 ERA, while the matchup pairs the majors’ best record with the defending champions.
Sale has held opponents to one run or fewer in six of his seven starts. He struck out 11 in seven innings in Colorado last Saturday, then carried a 4-0 record and 1.04 ERA over his last four starts into this weekend.
Sale’s run for Atlanta
The Braves will lean on Sale in a game that arrives with real weight for both clubs. Atlanta entered the weekend with 55 home runs, best in the National League before Thursday’s games, and Matt Olson had 13 of them while ranking second in the league with a 1.059 OPS.
Sale’s recent line shows why Atlanta chose him for the opener. Over his last four starts, he has 33 strikeouts and seven walks in 26 innings, a sharp stretch that has given the Braves a top-end arm for one of their biggest series of the season.
Dodgers lean on Sheehan
Emmet Sheehan gets the start for Los Angeles after allowing four runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Cardinals last Friday. It is his second career start against the Braves, and his season line will be part of the test against an Atlanta lineup that has scored on power more than volume.
Los Angeles has been uneven since April 21, going 7-8 and averaging 1.6 runs in eight losses during that span. The Dodgers did get a lift Wednesday when Andy Pages hit three home runs in a 12-2 win in Houston, but Tyler Glasnow left after the first inning with lower back tightness, forcing the bullpen to cover eight innings.
That leaves Friday’s opener with more than the usual early-series stakes. Sale has not been at his best against Los Angeles in his career, going 1-2 with a 6.65 ERA in five appearances and 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in two starts in Los Angeles, so Atlanta is asking him to extend his current form against a club that has already shown both power and instability this month.
Walt Weiss called Sale “Es un fenómeno” and added, “Es un futuro miembro del Salón de la Fama, y esos jugadores son simplemente diferentes. Eso es lo que ha estado haciendo prácticamente durante toda su carrera en las Grandes Ligas.” Friday night gives Atlanta the same calculation in real time: ride the form, take the opener, and make the Dodgers chase the series from behind.
