Atlanta’s ace touched 100 mph while pitching through the heartbreaking loss of a close family friend.
Chris Sale had already done enough to win the game by the time he returned to the Atlanta Braves’ dugout after the eighth inning.
The Dodgers had managed only four hits against him. Ten hitters had struck out. Not one had reached on a walk. Sale had thrown 97 pitches, and with Atlanta carrying only three available relievers — including Raisel Iglesias as the lone high-leverage option — the situation was obvious. The Braves needed their ace to keep going.
Weiss was prepared to send him back out for the ninth. Sale made sure there would be no debate.
“This is mine,” Sale told his manager, according to MLB.com's Mark Bowman.
It was a fitting declaration from a pitcher who has built his career around refusing to give away outs, though Thursday night carried a different kind of weight. Sale had spent the evening overpowering the Dodgers in a playoff-like atmosphere, reaching back for a 100.1 mph fastball against Shohei Ohtani and continuing to attack long after most pitchers would have handed the game to the bullpen.
Weiss had been planning to send him back out anyway. What happened next made it clear there wasn't much negotiating to do.
“He was on a mission,” Weiss said, postgame via Braves Vision. “You could see it.”
That was especially valuable considering what Sale had already asked of his teammates over the previous eight innings. Atlanta's bullpen situation meant every additional out from its ace mattered, and Sale wound up throwing 109 pitches to finish the Braves' 1-0 victory and complete a three-game sweep of the Dodgers.
It was the kind of performance that made the workload almost secondary.
Sale's fastball reached 100.1 mph against Shohei Ohtani in the third inning, his first triple-digit pitch since 2018. He struck Ohtani out on two sliders later in the at-bat, then struck him out again in the fifth on a 99.6 mph fastball.
At 37 years old, Sale is somehow throwing harder than he ever has.
Weiss went even further afterward, saying you could make an argument that Sale is as good now as he has been at any point in his career.
There is plenty of work behind that claim. Weiss pointed to Sale's offseason and in-season throwing programs, along with the routine he maintains in the weight room. The manager said Sale's consistency there is part of the reason his performance hasn't simply faded with age.
Thursday also showed the value of the relationship Sale has built with catcher Drake Baldwin. Sale famously doesn't shake off his catcher, and Weiss said that level of trust has become a significant part of how the two work together.
Baldwin saw the result up close.
“From pitch one, he was just locked in and executing pitches,” Baldwin said, via Bowman.
There was another reason the night meant so much to Sale, though, and it had nothing to do with the standings or the Dodgers.
A family friend, Ashley Foss, died Thursday at 42. Sale said she had watched his games for years and was a huge Braves fan.
That stayed with him throughout the night.
When Sale looked toward the sky after the final out, he said he knew someone was watching over him.
“I had a little something else helping me tonight,” Sale said, via Bowman.
The Braves needed Sale to carry them through a difficult bullpen situation. He did that, and then some. For Sale, though, the reason he wanted to finish Thursday night went considerably deeper than the pitch count.
