Matt Olson homers, Chris Sale dominates in win over Cubs (2024)

The Atlanta Braves faced the Cubs and Jameson Taillon with his 1.13 ERA in what looked like would be a low scoring affair. Chris Sale had been dominate as of late so it looked to be the making of a pitcher’s duel.

Well, Sale lived up to his end of the bargain. Taillon did not. To be fair, his defense failed him. By his defense, it was literally HIS defense.

Chris Sale looked like his former steady Cy Young contending self. In the first inning he struck out the first two hitters he faced. He looked like he may struggle a bit when he gave up a single to Cody Bellinger, followed by a hit by pitch of Christopher Morel. He was able to get out of it with yet another strikeout, this time the victim was Mike Tauchman.

It was pretty much smooth sailing from there (pun most definitely intended). Sale hit Pete Crow-Armstrong with a pitch in third inning, but other than that did not have another base runner until Nick Madrigal singled off of him in the seventh inning. These two singles and the two HBP were the only base runners Sale surrendered in his 7.0 innings pitched.

Sale showed no signs of slowing down as the game went on. In fact, when facing the top of the order for the third time in the game (which typically is when pitchers seem to struggle) in the sixth inning, he struck out two and forced a ground out.

Sale lowered his season ERA to 2.54 and ended the night with 7.0 innings pitched, two hits allowed, zero walks and nine strikeouts. Sale is now sixth in MLB in strikeouts.

Aaron Bummer came in to take over in the eighth and gave up a double, but that was the only damage he gave up, and he also picked up a strikeout of his own when he was able to get Miles Mastrobuoni to strikeout swinging.

Jackson Stephens was able to get some work in the ninth with the Braves large lead and looked good. He was solid, being able to get Bellinger to strikeout, and then force two straight pop-ups to end the game.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Braves showed a flash of what they are capable of. Right out of the gate the Braves started getting runs on base in droves. Ozzie Albies singled, followed by a Marcell Ozuna single that looked like he hit it off the ground (figuratively), and Olson knocked in Albies with a double to make the score 1-0. One run was all they could muster, but it was a good start.

The second inning was relatively quiet, but new Atlanta Brave Zack Short got a hit for a second straight night. The third inning was also slow, but Olson walked, which would be his second time on base so far in the game.

In the bottom of the fourth, Michael Harris took Taillon deep with a shot to dead center off of a 79.2 MPH curveball.

It is possible that Taillon was flustered from the HR because right after that Orlando Arcia reached on a fielding error by Taillon. This error would turn out to be extremely costly. The Braves took advantage in a big way. After Arcia reached, Kelenic singled, and Short walked to load the bases. Arcia then scored on a wild pitch to make the score 3-0. After a force out at home, Albies walked to load the bases for none other than Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna hit a ball that looked like it was going to be a grand slam that was caught right at the wall, making the score 4-0 on his sacrifice fly.

Then, 2023 MLB HR leader Matt Olson came to the plate. Olson channeled what he had last season and mashed a no doubter over right center to bust the game wide open at 7-0.

Taillon would leave the game after this inning with his box score saying he only gave up two earned runs, but he gave up seven runs total, and the error and wild pitch was his own fault.

The Braves ended the scoring there at 7-0. At the end of the game the box score read nine hits, and four walks to only four strikeouts on the night.

Matt Olson was easily the offensive MVP going 2-3 with a walk, a double, and a three-run HR. As we can all attest, it was nice seeing Olson having a monster night given his struggles by his standards this season.