Braves Name Both Rotation Lefties as Co-Pitchers of the Month for May

The Atlanta Braves were carried in the win column in the month of May by Max Fried and Chris Sale

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale allowed a grand total of two earned runs and two walks in the month of May while striking out forty-five opposing batters. / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves didn’t have a great month of May. 

Finishing the month at 13-14, it’s the first losing month for Atlanta since May of 2022, when Atlanta went 13-15. (What is it with the month of May, anyway? It’s consistently Atlanta’s worst month, with the team being a combined one game below .500 in the month over the last four campaigns despite being good enough to win the World Series in 2021 and then putting up two 100+ win seasons in the following years.) 

But Atlanta’s May record would be a lot worse if not for the work of Braves lefties Max Fried and Chris Sale, who were named the team’s Co-Pitchers of the Month for May, winning the team’s “Strong Arm” award presented by attorney John Foy. 

The Braves went 8-2 in the ten games started by Fried and Sale in May, going just 5-12 in games started by any other pitcher. 

Your @attorneyjohnfoy Strong Arm Co-Pitchers of the Month: Chris Sale & Max Fried! pic.twitter.com/zgN3zSf8ji

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 1, 2024

Both pitchers were superb, and did it in different ways. 

Sale continued his hot start to the season, going 5-0 with a 0.56 ERA in the month. His excellence came back to strikeouts, with Sale fanning forty-five batters against only two walks in the month. He allowed two total runs, both earned, with one each coming in his first and last starts of the month. Pitching thirty-two total innings, Sale made it through seven innings in all three of his final starts. 

Fried, by contrast, didn’t focus as much on strikeouts as he did inducing groundball outs. Allowing only a 2.04 ERA in the month, Fried still struck out twenty-nine in his five starts but got an absurd fifty-five groundball outs, inducing five double plays in the month. His outings in May include a seven-inning no-hit bid against the Mets on May 11th and a complete game against the Chicago Cubs, allowing only one earned run and throwing just 105 pitches. 

With Atlanta’s offensive troubles, the lockdown pitching from the rotation has been crucial to the Braves maintaining their pace in the National League East. The Braves won all twelve games in the month where their opponents were held to two runs or less, losing every single matchup where the opposing offense could put up three or more runs against Atlanta’s frustrating anemic offense.