Chris Sale won his major league-leading 15th game with six strong innings, Jorge Soler hit a homer early and threw out a runner at the plate late, and the Atlanta Braves beat the struggling Minnesota Twins 5-1 to finish a three-game sweep on Wednesday night.
Sale (15-3) continued his comeback season by extending his streak of allowing two earned runs or fewer to 14 starts. He had six strikeouts, tying San Diego’s Dylan Cease for the major league lead with 197 strikeouts this year and setting a single-season Braves franchise record for a left-handed pitcher.
“Being on a new team and having an opportunity to have a fresh start, it’s been fun,” said Sale, who earned his eighth All-Star selection after struggling with injuries during his last five seasons in Boston. “It’s a very loose clubhouse. It’s an easy place to kind of come in and mesh, so just trying to do my job.”
Matt Olson hit an RBI double and Luke Williams added a two-run double in a four-run seventh inning that broke the game open against Minnesota’s struggling bullpen and led the Braves (73-60) to their ninth win in their last 11 games. They moved within five games of NL East leader Philadelphia, where they start a four-game series Thursday night.
Atlanta hasn’t been closer than five games to the Phillies since May 18.
“It’s a good time to have a happy flight,” Sale said.
Sale lowered his ERA to 2.58, the best in MLB, at the expense of the Twins (72-61), who fell 3 1/2 games behind AL Central leader Cleveland. Kansas City is one game back. Minnesota has a three-game lead over Boston for the final wild card spot.
