On Tuesday, Chris Sale reached a significant milestone by logging 2,000 career innings in the Braves’ 2-1 win over the Reds. According to Google, nearly 9,800 players have pitched in Major League Baseball history, but Sale—who turned 36 in March—is now among just 450 to reach that innings threshold.
Now in his 15th MLB season, Sale’s 2025 campaign didn’t get off to a strong start. Although his Opening Day performance against the Padres was solid, he struggled to deliver a full outing in his next six starts, never lasting more than five innings. During that stretch, he posted a 5.40 ERA. While he continued to rack up strikeouts, the overall performance was underwhelming—especially for someone fresh off a Cy Young Award. Recently, however, things have clearly started to turn around.
In Tuesday night’s win over the Reds, we saw something close to vintage Chris Sale. He needed 112 pitches to get through 28 batters, but when he exited with two outs in the seventh inning, he had clearly made a statement: he’s back. For the second game in a row, Sale struck out ten batters, issued just two walks, and allowed only five hits across 6.2 scoreless innings. His 75 Game Score marked his best outing of the 2025 season—both statistically and visually.
That now makes two excellent starts in a row for the veteran left-hander. The key? His slider, which may currently be the best in baseball. He leaned on it heavily again, throwing it 57% of the time against Cincinnati (compared to 56% vs. Colorado), but this time, his entire pitch mix was working—something we hadn’t seen from him all season.
Sale generated whiff rates north of 30% on three pitches: the slider (38%), four-seam fastball (33%), and sinker (33%). While his slider has been consistently dominant—boasting a 44.7% whiff rate on the year—those elevated numbers on his fastball and sinker are a welcome development. The slider, mostly used against right-handed hitters, has been lethal, accounting for 33 of his 46 strikeouts this season and holding opponents to a .176 average.
But Tuesday wasn’t just about the slider. Sale’s four-seamer was coming in hotter than usual, averaging 95.8 mph and reaching as high as 97.7. That added velocity likely made his already devastating slider even tougher to hit. He threw only six total sinkers and changeups, which appears intentional—he used just 11 of those pitches combined in his previous start at Coors Field.
Another encouraging trend: the quality of contact he’s inducing. While Sale has historically posted an average ground-ball rate of around 43%, his first six starts this year saw that number drop to just 34.9%. On Tuesday, however, six of the eight balls put in play against him were groundouts, bringing his ground-ball rate back up to 43.3% over his last two games. While strikeouts are still part of his game, generating weak contact—especially grounders—is likely more sustainable for him at this stage of his career.
Thanks to this turnaround, Sale now leads the Braves rotation in WAR (1.0), strikeouts per nine innings (12.0), and FIP (3.04). His resurgence is part of a broader trend of encouraging signs from Atlanta’s pitching staff.
AJ Smith-Shawver appears to be settling in at the major league level. Grant Holmes has also shown significant progress. Though Spencer Schwellenbach has hit a rough patch, his underlying metrics suggest he’s close to breaking through. And Spencer Strider remains a stabilizing force once he returns from the IL, provided his health holds up.
Ideally, Sale doesn’t need to replicate his 2024 Cy Young form. The Braves simply need him to stay healthy and give them a fighting chance every fifth day. That wasn’t happening in April—but with two dominant outings in a row, it’s safe to say Chris Sale is back.