Braves’ Chris Sale emerges among Cy’s young pioneers

The Atlanta Braves could struggle offensively this season. But there isn’t much wrong with the pitching staff, and that could potentially lead to some hardware at the end of the year.

On June 7, Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report placed Braves starter Chris Sale on a short list of National League Cy Young Award candidates who could be winners for the first time this season.

“Sale had a bit of a problem recently, giving up eight runs in four innings against the Oakland Athletics on June 1,” Kelly wrote. “Nevertheless, he is having his best season in half a decade, as he leads the NL in FIP (2.48), BB/9 (1.3) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.20).”

Sale, however, bounced back from that clunker against Oakland. Despite taking the loss, in his most recent start Friday, Sale allowed just 2 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings. He also struck out 10 and walked only one.

Despite Friday’s loss, Sale is 8-2 this season. His .800 winning percentage is the best he has posted in his career in a season in which he made at least 10 starts.

Sales have also been impressive in new age baseball statistics. He leads the National League with a 2.32 FIP. His strikeout/walk ratio of 8.36 and 1.3 BB/9 is also the best in the league.

Sale has 92 strikeouts and just 11 walks in 74.2 innings. He also has a 3.01 ERA this season.

This ERA is good enough to be the best mark on many starting teams in the league. Incredibly, the Braves have two other starters with lower ERAs, which shows how well Atlanta’s pitchers have carried the team this year.

Sale has made seven All-Star teams in his 15-year career, all of which came between 2012 and 2018. If he continues to pitch well for a few more weeks, he is all but guaranteed to make his first All-Team -Star in six years.

But Sale could also compete for his first Cy Young award. He finished in the top five in Cy Young voting six times, but never won the award.

In 2017, Sale went 17-8 with a 2.90 ERA and 308 strikeouts to finish second in the AL Cy Young voting to Corey Kluber.