While everyone waits anxiously for the diagnosis of Ronald Acuña Jr’s knee injury, the Braves played a couple of baseball games over the weekend, and there were several encouraging signs.
Most notably, Chris Sale toed the rubber for the second time as a member of the Braves after a perfect debut, striking out four in two perfect innings. His second outing featured a lot more baserunners, as he surrendered three hits and a couple of walks over 2.2 innings, but he was able to pitch around all the traffic thanks to five strikeouts.
I haven’t been shy about my expectations for Chris Sale. He still has the stuff of an ace, a guy who made seven straight trips to the All-Star Game. Injuries are the only concern. Right now, he’s healthy, and if it remains that way throughout the entire season, this will go down as one of the moves of the offseason.
Chris Sale isn’t the only veteran on the Braves Spring Training squad looking like his former self, however. Ken Giles, once one of the most feared relievers in the game, is competing for one of the club’s final roster spots. Through two outings, he’s looking like a guy that belongs in the Braves bullpen.
In his first appearance of Spring last week, Giles struck out the side, fanning Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm. Over the weekend, he tossed another hitless inning.
As of right now, I would say Ken Giles is a frontrunner for one of the Braves final bullpen spots, but there’s still a lot of ball left to be played that will determine who gets the nod.
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