The Braves’ Chris Sale and the Athletics’ Luis Severino, who were the Opening Day starters for their teams, will oppose each other on Wednesday afternoon when the clubs meet in the decisive game of a three-game series at Atlanta.
After the Braves won the series opener 4-0, the A’s evened the score 5-2 on Tuesday, picking up their first victory of the season in their fifth try.
Sale (1-0, 0.00 ERA) fired six scoreless innings and allowed only three hits in the opener against the Kansas City Royals, a 6-0 Braves’ victory on Friday. The 37-year-old left-hander fanned six batters and moved to No. 30 on the all-time strikeout list, passing Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Warren Spahn.
“I feel like I’m a fan of the game as much as I’m a player in this game,” Sale said. “Knowing who those two guys were, I mean just legends in the game. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around and talk about it, but I appreciate it. It’s humbling to be in the same sentence as those guys.”
Atlanta manager Walt Weiss said, “He’s such a special guy on the mound. And at this point in his career, he can still go get 98 (mph) when he wants it.”
Sale has made 17 career appearances, 12 starts, against the A’s, going 6-4 with a 3.42 ERA. However, since the start of the 2020 season, he has opposed the Athletics just once, when he was tagged for eight runs on nine hits in four innings during a start on June 1, 2024.
Severino (0-0, 3.50 ERA) received no-decision against the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. He pitched five innings and allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out three.
“I felt pretty good,” Severino said. “Early on I was hitting the glove, throwing a lot of strikes. Got in a couple of jams out there but made some good pitches and got out of it.”
Severino has made five career starts against the Braves, going 1-2 with a 4.13 ERA. He faced Atlanta three times in 2024 while a member of the New York Mets, going 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA. He did not oppose the Braves in 2025.
The A’s found the clutch hits on Tuesday that they were missing in the series opener. They went 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position and pushed across five runs, their second-highest output of the season.
Andy Ibanez and Jacob Wilson, who was moved to leadoff spot, each had two hits and two RBIs. Entering the game, the A’s had only one hit from their No. 1 position in the lineup.
Meanwhile, the Braves had trouble with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-8 and stranding two baserunners in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings.
“We had our opportunities, had our guys up there, but we’ve got to get it going a little bit,” Weiss said. “We’ve got some guys that are spinning their wheels right now in the lineup and they’re going to get going, but that’s where we’re at right now. It’s just a little hiccup.”
A win would give the A’s a series victory over the Braves for second straight season.
–Field Level Media
