Chris Sale cruises, Austin Riley crushes in 6-1 spring win
The Braves had another nice showing against Boston, as the major league regulars looked ready for the season.
We had a great matchup of two dominant lefties in Spring Training on Saturday, with Chris Sale facing Garrett Crochet and Sale’s former team, the Red Sox. Sale gave up two very hard-hit balls in the first at over 104 MPH each, but only allowed a walk for a single baserunner. Sale was able to reign in the hard contact after the first and generally looked like himself, touching 97 on the radar gun and generating plenty of whiffs, despite relatively low strikeout totals.
Michael Harris gave Chris an assist with a great jumping catch in the third. Sale continued to cruise his way through the game efficiently, completing 6. 0 innings on 86 pitches wit 4 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 run allowed.
That’s a solid outing for Sale, even with the relatively tame strikeout total by his standards in his final spring tune-up. Tyler Kinley took over in the seventh and allowed a single in a scoreless frame with one strikeout. Dylan Lee was the last major league pitcher to get some work on Saturday, as he worked a clean 8th inning with one strikeout.
Michael Harris II leaps into the wall on a spectacular catch 👏 pic. twitter. com/B9wH8skmVj — MLB (@MLB) March 21, 2026 On offense, Austin Riley continued his strong spring, blasting a 110 MPH home run off of Crochet in the second and a hard-hit double in the third.