Chris Sale dazzled again for the Atlanta Braves in their 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals in 10 innings. He took the no-decision but put the Braves in position to win.
He tossed eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and no walks while punching out nine. This effort pushed him past Cole Hamels and Jerry Koosman on the all-time strikeout list while matching Tim Keefe.
Sale, with 2,564 career strikeouts, now ranks 32nd on the all-time list with time left to climb higher before heading into the offseason.
Two Hall of Fame pitchers are within striking distance, based on how much of the season is left. Bob Feller and Warren Spahn are 17 and 19 strikeouts away, respectively.
The latter is a Boston/Milwaukee Braves legend. So, there is some heightened team significance for that milestone.
Sale is also closing on them in significantly fewer innings as well. He’s at 2,073 1/3 innings, while Feller pitched 3,827 innings and Spahn tossed 5,243 2/3 innings.
Heading into next season, another Braves Hall of Fame arm will be next to be surpassed, Tom Glavine (2,607). Had Sale been healthy, he’d have passed him already, along with Feller and Spahn, but it gives him another milestone to strive for next season.
Sure, strikeout rates are high now, but few still get this far in their careers at all, let alone pitchers who spent multiple years missing time due to injuries before finding their footing.
The future Hall of Fame left-hander hasn’t missed a beat and is just as locked in as he was before going on the injured list for two months.
His strikeouts-per-nine-innings of 11.74 is slightly higher than last season, when he won the Cy Young Award. When adjusting to the number of innings he clocked in last year (177 2/3), Sale would have 231 strikeouts compared to the 225 he had last season.
Again, it makes you wonder what could have been achieved if he had just landed a different way on a dive back in June. He missed about 10 starts, give or take. Assuming he averaged six innings per start, he’d be at about 228 strikeouts with a few more to go over a hypothetical 175 innings across 29 starts.
Regardless of the time he has missed, there are still more milestones to come. He’s sticking around for at least one more season in a Braves uniform. In 12 months, we’ll see where he finishes.
