Chris Sale’s Braves season keeps stacking up against some of the biggest pitching years Atlanta has ever seen, and the company he’s in says plenty.
After his determined effort in Friday’s 11-inning win over the Phillies, Sale’s ERA sat at 2.18. Only Jacob Misiorowski (1.95) and Cam Schlittler (2.01) have a better mark among qualified MLB pitchers this season. For a Braves pitcher, though, the conversation goes deeper than a single leaderboard.
If you go back through the Live Ball Era - since 1920 - only a handful of Braves starters have finished a season with a 2.18 ERA or lower over at least 25 starts. The list is short and heavy on legends: Greg Maddux in 1994 at 1.56, Maddux again in 1995 at 1.63, Reynaldo López in 2024 at 1.99, and Warren Spahn in 1953 at 2.10.
That’s the kind of neighborhood Sale is operating in now.
The ERA picture gets even louder when you factor in context. Adjusted ERA+ accounts for ballpark and league scoring environment, with 100 representing league average.
Sale’s 194 ERA+ through 26 starts puts him in a rare Braves class. Only Maddux’s 1994 and 1995 seasons, along with López’s 2024 run, were better over a 25-start minimum.
Spahn’s best mark, for what it’s worth, was 188 in 1953.
So while the Braves have had a parade of pitching greats - Spahn, Phil Niekro, Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz all spent most of their Hall of Fame careers in Atlanta - Sale’s 2025 work has a real case as the best season any Braves pitcher has put together since Maddux’s peak years. And given the age factor, it gets even more striking.
Sale is 37, and pitchers his age don’t usually show up in this kind of conversation. Yet his 194 ERA+ has him among a tiny group of 37-or-older arms who have managed that level while making at least 25 starts. The names attached to that threshold are the sort that stop you in your tracks: Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Justin Verlander and Cy Young.
Johnson carries an extra layer for Sale, too. That’s the pitcher he idolized growing up in Lakeland, Fla., and this season has only added to the repeated links between the two left-handers.
Sale also still has a shot at another milestone. He needs 10 more strikeouts to join Johnson as the only left-handed pitchers with at least nine 200-strikeout seasons.
What happens next depends on how the Braves want to manage the final stretch. Their series win over the Phillies gave them some breathing room, which means they do not have to use Sale on Wednesday at Wrigley Field. If they choose that route, it would be only his third start of the year on regular rest.
Another possibility is holding him until Friday’s series opener in Houston. Pitching once a week has worked well for Sale over the past couple months, but the Braves may also want him to make a short tuneup appearance on Sept. 23 at home against the Reds so he’s lined up to start Game 1 of the Wild Card Series on Sept. 29.
There’s also the path where he pitches Wednesday against the Cubs on regular rest, then waits another week before making his final postseason tuneup in the middle game of the three-game set against the Reds.
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Pulido, in particular, stood out by earning a midseason jump to the Florida Complex League and then handling the higher level better after the move. The kind of year the Braves got in the DSL is rarely pretty, but individual progress matters most at this stage, and the early returns suggest this class may be better than the final standings make it look. [Read more 🡒]