Braves ace Chris Sale dominates as Rockies’ road futility continues

The Rockies surely hate being a foregone conclusion. But they certainly were that going into Tuesday night’s game in Atlanta.

With lefty strikeout machine Chris Sale on the mound for the Braves, the young, road-helpless Rockies stood a next-to-nothing chance of coming away with a W.

And, of course, they didn’t.

Sale struck out nine over seven innings as Atlanta blanked Colorado 3-0 at Truist Park. Sale has now pitched 15 consecutive games in which he’s allowed two or fewer runs.

All told, the Rockies fanned 14 times.

The Braves are 15-3 against Colorado since the start of the 2022 season, and Colorado was shut out for the 14th time this season.

Sale has 206 Ks this season, becoming the first Braves lefty to top 200 strikeouts in a season. He reached the 200-K mark for the first time since 2019 when he pitched for Boston.

Still, with lefty starter Kyle Freeland pitching five gutsy innings, the Rockies stayed in the game. Before his early departure because of a finger blister (a reoccurring problem in the second half of the season), Freeland limited the Braves to two runs (one earned) on six hits. He fanned five and didn’t walk any.

Atlanta scored its two runs off Freeland in the third. Whit Merrifield hit a one-out single and scored on Gio Urshela’s double down the left-field line. Urshela scored when first baseman Michael Toglia, scrambling to make a play on Michael Harris II’s grounder, threw the ball away for an error.

Atlanta tacked on another run in the seventh on Harris’ sacrifice fly to score pinch-runner Luke Williams. Colorado right-hander Jeff Criswell hit Merrifield in the back of the helmet, forcing Merrifield from the game. Williams advanced to third on Urshela’s single and scored on the sac fly.

Colorado’s best chance to get to Sale came in the sixth. Ezequiel Tovar led off with a triple to right, his third triple this season. But Sale reared back and unleashed his 96 mph fastball to strike out Brendan Rodgers and Brenton Doyle before getting Michael Toglia to fly out to deep center where Harris made an excellent catch against the wall.

The Rockies are 19-51 on the road, on pace to finish 22-59, which would be tied for the second-worst road record in franchise history (2023). The 2014 Rockies were 21-60 away from Coors Field.