The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Folty’ outduels Sale in Boston
Braves starter didn’t allow a hit until sixth; Acuna leaves injured.
BOSTON — If anyone was going to take a no-hitter to the sixth inning Sunday at Fenway Park, it figured to be Red Sox ace Chris Sale. But Mike Foltynewicz and the Braves had other ideas.
Sale gave up six runs and left the game before Foltynewicz had allowed even a hit and the Braves rolled to a 7-1 win to avert a sweep and snap a three-game losing streak.
“A very big day, especially when you’ve got one of the best pitchers in baseball going out there,” Foltynewicz said of his Red Sox counterpart. “So I knew once they got the three (early) runs that I had to take the opportunity in my own hands.”
Tyler Flowers hit a three-run homer off his former White Sox batterymate Sale in the second inning and Foltynewicz (4-3) made the lead stand, limiting the Red Sox to just three hits and one run in seven innings with three walks and seven strikeouts. “Folty” took a no-hitter to the sixth before Andrew Benintendi’s one-out double off the Green Monster left-field wall.
“Today wasn’t his best command day, but he had decent command of off-speed,” Flowers said of Foltynewicz. “Obviously he kept high velocity throughout, so being able to throw offspeed for strikes buys you a little more margin for error, especially when you’re throwing that hard. ... Pretty electric stuff throughout the whole day.”
It might have been a costly win as Braves phenom Ronald Acuna left in the seventh inning after a gruesome-looking incident in which he appeared to severely hyperextend his left knee when he planted his foot after crossing first base on an infield hit. The prized rookie walked off the field after being attended to by Braves trainers and the initial diagnosis given by the team was “knee and lower-back pain,” but
Acuna was being examined at a Boston hospital after the game to determine the extent of his knee injury.
The Braves finished a sixgame trip that included just one win in each series at Phil- adelphia and Boston. While Foltynewicz was trimming his ERA to 2.55, Sale saw his jump by more than half a run to 2.76 after allowing five hits, six runs and three walks in 4⅓ innings.
It was the second time the formidable left-hander faced the Braves in his career and the second time Sale
got pounded by them. In a July 2016 game in Chicago, Sale allowed 10 hits, eight earned runs — matching his career high — and three homers in five innings of an 11-8 Braves win. The Braves got off to a much-needed early lead when Flowers homered on an 0-2 fastball from Sale, his Chicago White Sox batterymate on a regular basis during 2011-2015. It was Flowers’ second homer in 49 at-bats this season, but also his second homer in his third career at-bat against Sale. After Flowers’ second-in- ning homer, Sale retired eight of the next nine bat-
ters, including six strikeouts, but Dansby Swanson walked to start the fifth inning and kick off another scoring outburst. Charlie Culberson followed with a single to right field that was botched by Jackie Bradley, allowing a run. And after a one-out walk by Acuna, Freddie Freeman doubled to drive in two runs and send Sale to the showers.
It was the briefest outing of the season for Sale, who lasted at least five innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his 11 starts before Sunday, including six or more innings eight times and one or no earned runs seven times.