Braves’ Chris Sale makes all kinds of history in complete-game shutout of Dodgers

Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale must have been seeing red all night long as he faced the Los Angeles Dodgers at home in the finale of a four-game series. Sale was a man on a mission, and his dominant outing lasted the entire night as he threw a complete game shutout, leading the Braves to a 1-0 victory over the Dodgers.

The battery created this win for the Braves, as catcher Drake Baldwin hit a leadoff home run in the first inning — the run that proved to be the difference-maker in this game. But Atlanta needed Sale to be as dominant as he is considering that the Dodgers’ pitching staff, outside of that home run they allowed to Baldwin, was also on lock.

Sale struck out 11, walked none, and allowed just five hits in a thorough domination of the Dodgers. He threw 109 pitches, 80 of which went for strikes. The Braves lefty made a ton of history in this elite effort on Thursday; he became just the sixth pitcher in MLB history aged 37 years and 150 days or older to throw 10 strikeouts without allowing a single walk in a single game since 1900, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

Moreover, Sale became the fourth-oldest pitcher in Braves history to throw a shutout over the last 40 years — joining the elite company of Dennis Martinez (44 years, 19 days) and John Smoltz (38 years, 337 days and 38 years, seven days) in that three-person club.

Sale also hit a few personal bests on Thursday. In addition to throwing his fastest pitch since 2018, he also grabbed his fourth career shutout and his first since 2019. This was also his 95th career game with 10 or more strikeouts, and of those 95, he now has 21 games in which he didn’t allow a single walk.

Suffice to say, the Braves star had himself a night — lowering his ERA in 2026 to 2.06 as his remarkable late-career turnaround continues.

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