Sale Sails Toward Pitching Triple Crown
Sale Sails Toward Pitching Triple Crown
PLUS: SEVERE INJURY WAVE RUINED 2024 CAMPAIGN FOR BATTLE-TESTED BRAVES
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Kudos to the Cubs for getting their first Wrigley Field no-hitter since 1972 . . .
With seven hitless innings to start the game, former Nippon Leagues star Shōta Imanaga boosted his record to 12-3 and improved his standing atop a tight NL Rookie of the Year race sure to include Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill, and Jackson Chourio . . .
After its promising start, Pittsburgh has plunged deep into the Allegheny . . .
The front-running Los Angeles Dodgers will get a big boost when talented rookie right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, out most of the season, returns to their rotation next week . . .
Up the California coast, the San Francisco Giants also reeled in a big fish when slick-fielding third baseman Matt Chapman signed a six-year, $151 million extension rather than opting out of his contract to test free agency again . . .
The Yankees are understandably unhappy with closer Clay Holmes, whose 11 blown saves this year lead the majors . . .
Speaking of blown saves, here’s what happened in San Diego Thursday night: with the Detroit Tigers trailing by three and down to their final strike, Parker Meadows hit a go-ahead grand slam against star closer Robert Suarez — the first time since June 2 that the Padres lost a game in which their starting pitcher left with a lead. The Tigers won, 4-3.
Also Thursday, the lowly Rockies held the once-mighty Braves to a single run — the 23rd time Atlanta scored one run or none in a game this season. It was only a year ago that the Braves led the majors with a record-setting .501 slugging percentage and record-tying 307 home runs while leading both leagues with 104 wins.
Leading Off
In First NL Season, Chris Sale Seeks First Cy + Rare Triple Crown
By Dan Schlossberg
When the Atlanta Braves traded top prospect Vaughn Grissom to the Boston Red Sox for fading pitcher Chris Sale last winter, the deal elicited yawns from all corners of the baseball world.
Grissom, 23, was supposed to fill Boston’s second-base hole, which has existed ever since Dustin Pedroia had good health and the ability to play.
Sale, 34, was considered a washed-up veteran whose best days (including three straight starts in the All-Star Game) were behind him.
Instead, Grissom got hurt early and often, hardly played, and was the biggest flop in Fenway this season.
Sale, by contrast, not only pitched himself to the top of the Atlanta rotation after Spencer Strider’s elbow blew up in April but made the NL All-Star team.
Now he’s the top candidate for his first Cy Young Award and the rare Triple Crown of pitching — symbolic of leadership in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average.
Only 28 previous pitchers, including 23 since the 1901 advent of the American League, have won it, with the latest being Shane Bieber of Cleveland during the virus-shortened 2020 campaign.
A bunch of Hall of Famers, notably Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, in three different seasons, have won it multiple times.
That short list also includes two-time winners Christy Mathewson, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gomez, and Roger Clemens.
Active winners of past Triple Crowns are Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw in addition to Bieber.
How hard is it to win the pitching Triple Crown? Suffice to say that none of the vaunted trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz ever did it. Neither did another Braves Hall of Famer, Warren Spahn.
Cy Young, who won a record 511 games and had a pitching award named after him, did win a Triple Crown — with 33 wins, a 1.62 ERA, and 158 strikeouts during the Dead Ball Era in 1901.
The dead ball obviously made a difference; 15 instances of Pitching Triple Crowns happened before Babe Ruth’s bat changed the face of the game in 1920.
In recent history, the feat has been as rare as a White Sox victory.
Steve Carlton was the only pitcher to turn the trick in the ‘70s, while Doc Gooden was the only Triple Crown winners of the ‘80s. In fact, Koufax was the only pitcher to pull it off, albeit three times, between Hal Newhouser in 1945 and Carlton in 1972.
And now along comes Sale, virtually certain to join Bieber along with Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw (both in 2011) as the only pitchers to win the triple in the 21st century.
There’s even a chance that Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers will win the Triple Crwn of pitching in the American League this season. And he could claim his first Cy as well.
It’s quite an achievement — for Sale, Skubal, or whomever accomplished the feat in the future.
Forbes baseball writer Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other baseball books. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Braves Were Knocked Out Early By Injury Bug
By Dan Schlossberg
Losing their best hitter and best pitcher early was a double whammy that doomed the 2024 Atlanta Braves before Memorial Day.
Taking Ronald Acuña, Jr. (torn left ACL) and Spencer Strider (UCL elbow surgery) away from the Braves was like taking Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler from Philadelphia or Francisco Lindor and Sean Manaea from the Mets. For an American League equivalent, imagine the Yankees without Aaron Judge and Aaron Cole.
The last time Atlanta was destroyed so convincingly was more than 150 years ago — during Sherman’s March to the Sea at the end of the Civil War.
After winning 104 games, hitting 307 home runs, and slugging .501 (a major-league record) in 2023, the Braves had to run on fumes practically all season.
In addition to losing Acuña and Strider for most of the campaign, they also spent months without All-Star infielders Ozzie Albies (broken left wrist) and Austin Riley (broken right hand) as well as catcher Sean Murphy (oblique) and center-fielder Michael Harris II (severe hamstring strain).
Pitchers Huascar Ynoa, Hurston Waldrep, Ray Kerr, and Angel Perdomo also went down for significant stretches with elbow issues, while prized southpaw reliever A.J. Minter saunted to the sidelines with left hip inflammation.
Atlanta’s injured list was also occupied at various times by Max Fried, Reynaldo Lopez, Pierce Johnson, Tyler Matzek, AJ Smith-Shawver, Ramon Laureano, and others, leaving only Chris Sale, Matt Olson, and Marcell Ozuna unscathed.
While hamstrings, obliques, and injuries to the ACL and UCL can’t be avoided, pitched balls usually can. But not always.
Whit Merrifield, obtained by the Braves to replace Albies at second base, escaped serious injury but not a serious scare when hit in the head by an errant pitch during a game against the Colorado Rockies the day after Labor Day. But he did miss time.
“I’m sick of it, it’s happening way too much,” he told David O’Brien of The Athletic. “I watched Taylor Ward get hit in the face last year and have to get reconstructive surgery. Justin Turner got hit in the face last year. It’s happening at an exponential rate. Guys are getting hit in the hand, Mookie Betts broke a bone in his hand this year. It’s just ridiculous, and it has to be fixed. Or, God forbid, something terrible’s going to happen.
Forbes baseball writer Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other books. He’s also the editor of Here’s The Pitch 2025, an ACTA Publications book slated for publication Nov. 15. Dan’s email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: When Fans Stayed Home
The 1935 St. Louis Browns had the dubious distinction of the worst attendance in major-league history: 80,922 . . .
Another Depression-era ballclub, the Boston Red Sox, drew 182,150 in a 1932 season that included games in both Fenway Park and the larger Braves Field . . .
Facing stiff competition from the new Federal League, several established teams suffered record lows: the Pittsburgh Pirates drew 139,620 to Forbes Field, the Philadelphia Phillies pulled 138,474 through the turnstiles at Baker Bowl, and the Brooklyn Dodgers dragged 122,671 customers — including a team-worst 1,553 for a single game — into Ebbets Field . . .
As recently as 2001, the Montreal Expos finished with a season attendance of 642,745 at The Big O, otherwise known as Olympic Stadium, though it could have stood for Zero . . .
The worst-attended game in MLB history dates back to Sept. 28, 1882, when Troy at Worcester drew the grand total of SIX paying patrons on a gray, windy day. Both teams had already been notified they were being dropped from the six-year-old National League.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.