“For it to be your catcher, that always makes it more special,” starter Chris Sale said. “He’s obviously working his butt off behind the plate, calling a great game, mixing in and out with the game plan. For him to go on the other side of the ball and do what he did, nothing short of electric. Legendary. Awesome. Fun to be a part of.

“You felt it tonight in that stadium. The energy was wild. It was unbelievable. It was a fun game to be a part of.”

— 3. Truist Park witness Braves history. Here are the individuals who’ve hit three home runs in a single game since the franchise moved to Atlanta in 1966:

Oliver (1966); Tillman (1969); Rico Carty (1970); Mike Lum (1970); Orlando Cepeda (1970); Murphy (1979); Bob Horner (4 homers; 1986); Ken Griffey (1986); Jeff Treadway (1990); Jeff Blauser (1992); Andruw Jones (2002); Chipper Jones (2006); Mark Teixeira (2008); Matt Kemp (2017); Marcell Ozuna (2020); Adam Duvall (twice in 2020; Duvall is the only other player to hit a grand slam in his three-homer outing)

— 4. It’s increasingly apparent why the Braves wanted Sale. He still shows plenty of signs he can be his old self, even after injuries have robbed him of much of the past four seasons.

Coming off a rough start in Miami (in which he still covered seven innings), Sale was mostly solid against the Rangers. He surrendered a leadoff homer to nemesis Marcus Semien, who’s long had success off the southpaw, but retired 15 of the next 17 Rangers.

Semien, though reached on an infield single to lead off the sixth. An out later, Wyatt Langford singled to center. Adolis Garcia’s double scored two runs to tie the game at three. Sale remained in the seventh and pitched a 1-2-3 frame to conclude his outing.

“He’s been really efficient,” Snitker said. “He’s felt good. That’s why we got him. I think they looked at what he did last year, how he finished, his health and everything. He takes good care of himself, too.”

— 5. Sale generated 12 swings and misses. He topped out at 96.6 mph. He had 18 pitches register at 95 mph or above. The Rangers whiffed on 40% of their swings on his slider (eight of 20).

The Braves’ rotation will be fascinating to follow in the summer months. Sale is already bearing a heavy workload, somewhat a surprise given he’d thrown only 151 innings across the past four years due to injury. Reynaldo Lopez, a converted reliever, has been brilliant thus far, but that’s another situation where the team could need to dial back his innings at some point.

Stat to know

1,312 — The combined feet of d’Arnaud’s three homers.

Quotable

“To be honest, nobody cares (about my performance). We’re here to talk about one thing and one thing only. No one cares about the pitching. No one cares about the fan beating the Freeze (or) who was eating a hot dog (on the big screen). Tonight was about Travis and that was nothing short of electric.” — Sale

Up next

Charlie Morton (1-0, 5.29) faces Nathan Eovaldi (1-1, 2.92) Saturday in the middle contest of this three-game series.

©2023 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.