The Atlanta Braves faced off against the Boston Red Sox in the second game of a two game series tonight in which Chris Sale faced his former team for the first time, and Marcell Ozuna faced a starting pitcher in Nick Pivetta in which he has had tremendous success against in his career.

Chris Sale came out in the first inning and it was far from a clean inning. After striking out Duran, he gave up a double to Kolton Wong, followed right after with a walk to Tyler O’Neill to put a runner on first and second with one out. The runners were then able to move over one base a piece on a ground ball. This put runners on second and third with two outs, but Sale was able to get old friend Vaughn Grissom to strikeout to end the inning without any damage.

Chris Sale was able to seemingly sail through the second inning. He struck out two of the next three batters and with a little help from Austin Riley with the awesome play below, he was able to make it through the second inning just fine.

🎯🎯🎯@austinriley1308 | #BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/zEIh66XivN

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 8, 2024

Sale then made it through the third inning only having to face four batters. Through this point in the game he had already racked up five strikeouts. In what seemed to be the trend of the night, Sale faced four batters in the fourth inning as well.

In the fifth inning Sale ended up being in a bit of a jam giving up back-to-back singles to Rafaela and Duran to have runners on first and second with zero outs, but was able to force a groundout followed by two strikeouts to get out of the inning yet again with zero runs given up.

Even after giving up two hits in the fifth, Brian Snitker showed his faith in Sale and let him go back out for the sixth inning. It probably helped that he only had eighty-seven pitches up to this point too. This faith paid off and it was aided by a web gem from Kelenic, who is surely a contender for a gold glove at this point.

Sale ended his night after 6.0 innings, six hits, one walk, and ten strikeouts. Dylan Lee relieved Sale and was able to, you guessed it, end the inning after four batters. Lee was left in the game to pitch the eighth and did not disappoint. He continued the trend of the night, facing four batters once again. He ended his night with 2.0 innings pitched with one single, zero walks, and two strikeouts.

Newly promoted Ray Kerr took the ball in the ninth and did his job. He faced the minimum number of hitters with a pop-up, ground out, and a strikeout to Rafaela to end the game.

Home run! JK.#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/rq6cgtKFcA

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 9, 2024

Before the game started, Ozuna had a .990 OPS and four HRs against Nick Pivetta in twenty-four at-bats. He did not disappoint tonight.

The first inning for the Braves appeared to be cut short with no runs after Albies singled and Austin Riley looked to have hit into a double play. However, after review it turned out Riley was safe, which extended the inning. The Braves took full advantage of this. With two outs and one on, Matt Olson singled to put two runners on, then Marcell Ozuna hit his fifth career HR off of Pivetta to make it 3-0. Not to be outdone, Arcia hit a HR of his own to make the score 4-0 before Michael Harris grounded out to end the inning.

Your new @MLB home run leader: Marcell Ozuna!#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/XjTP7gEMiI

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 9, 2024

The second inning was a quiet one for the Braves’ offense, but in the third inning Ozuna wanted more and hit his sixth career HR off Pivetta to become the MLB leader in HRs so far this season.

In the fifth inning it looked like the Braves may get some insurance when Riley singled and Ozuna walked, but the score remained 5-0 after five innings. The Braves were pretty much silenced the rest of the way offensively, but the five runs is all that they needed with the dominant pitching performance.

Ozuna ended the game going two for three with two HRs, a walk, and four RBI. To make things even more sweet, the Phillies lost so the Braves were able to gain a game in the standings.