Chris Sale isn't supposed to be doing this. Pitchers don't typically add velocity at 37, especially ones with Sale's injury history, which has included Tommy John surgery and a string of shoulder and rib issues that nearly ended his career a few years back. Instead, the Braves left-hander just kept climbing the all-time strikeout list, and on July 17 he got batter No. 2,700 in a dominant start against the Rangers.
Chris Sale's 2,700th Career Strikeout. 🍾
The number itself is absurd company. Sale entered this season already one of the fastest pitchers in MLB history to reach milestone strikeout totals, and he's doing it on a Braves team that's leaning on him as a rotation anchor again, with a 10-6 record and a 2.06 ERA that ranks third in baseball this year. It's also earned him his 10th career All-Star nod, a reminder that whatever ceiling people penciled in for him a few years ago was wrong.
What's driving it isn't a mystery to Sale himself. His fastball has crept back up into the high-90s this season, touching marks he hadn't hit consistently since his prime years in Chicago and Boston, and hitters are struggling to square it up. Sale's own explanation for the added giddyup was blunt and very on-brand.
Why is Chris Sale throwing so hard this year? "I gotta let 'em know the old man's still got it." 🤣
"I gotta let 'em know the old man's still got it" is a great soundbite, but Sale also pointed to something more specific: he credited a shoutout to "Miz" and the opposing pitching staff for pushing him to reach back for more. It's the kind of small, human detail that explains a lot about why a guy with nothing left to prove is still hunting extra ticks on the radar gun.
I loved Sale's shoutout to Miz as well as the Pirates pitching staff for driving him to throw harder.
That extra velocity has been showing up in bunches, not just in isolated milestone moments. Sale racked up strikeouts in the second inning alone during his most recent turn through the rotation, the kind of stretch that shows the stuff isn't a one-start fluke.
Chris Sale's 2Ks in the 2nd.
None of this reads like a farewell tour. With the ERA near the top of the league and the fastball ticking upward instead of down, Sale looks less like a 37-year-old managing decline and more like a pitcher who found another gear late. The strikeout counter keeps climbing, and at this rate 2,800 isn't far behind.