Braves' Sale takes blame for loss to A's

Atlanta Braves left-hander Chris Sale took responsibility for his team's 11-9 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

"There's no secret, we've been in a tough stretch, and then to score nine runs and have an explosive game offensively, and then kind of put a damper on that, sucks," Sale said postgame, per The Athletic's David O'Brien. "It's pretty easy to sum up, there's one reason we lost this game, and he's sitting here right now."

The Athletics teed off on Sale, tallying eight runs on nine hits over four innings. The rough outing raised Sale's ERA this season from 2.12 to 3.06 after 11 starts.

"Can't really put your finger on it. Probably a little out of whack, something I'll look into tomorrow," Sale said, per O'Brien. "But just seemed like everything that I've done to be successful just didn't happen today. Put my team in a tough spot, and here we are."

The Braves have struggled lately, dropping four of six games since 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. was lost for the season with a torn ACL.