MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Chris Sale won his major league-leading 15th game with six crisp innings, Jorge Soler homered early and threw out a runner at the plate late, and the resurgent Atlanta Braves beat the struggling Minnesota Twins 5-1 to complete a three-game sweep Wednesday night.
Sale (15-3) continued his comeback season by stretching his streak of allowing two earned runs or fewer to 14 straight starts. Sale had six strikeouts to match San Diego’s Dylan Cease for the major league lead with 197 this year and set a single-season Braves franchise record for a left-hander.
Matt Olson hit an RBI double and Luke Williams added a two-run double in a four-run seventh that broke the game open against Minnesota’s beleaguered bullpen and propelled the Braves (73-60) to their ninth win in their last 11 games. They moved within five games of NL East leader Philadelphia, where they conveniently start a four-game series on Thursday night.
Atlanta hasn’t been closer than five games to the Phillies since May 18.
Twins rookie David Festa (2-4) had his finest start to date spoiled by Sale and Soler.
The right-hander struck out seven batters in a career-high six innings, with one run allowed on two hits and one walk. That came by Marcell Ozuna leading off the seventh in a 1-1 game, prompting manager Rocco Baldelli to pull Festa for lefty Caleb Thielbar. Thielbar lost the lead, and Jorge Alcala let it grow.
Festa could have easily taken a lead into the seventh inning. The Twins, who had runners at second and third with no outs and the bases loaded with one out but failed to score in the fourth against Sale, got only one run across in the sixth despite four hits and three straight to start the frame.
Manny Margot was waved in by third base coach Tommy Watkins on a single by Ryan Jeffers and easily thrown out by Soler from right field for the first out. Jose Miranda hit a single in the next at-bat, and the Twins finally got on the board with Willi Castro’s two-out single.
Sale still lowered his NL-best ERA to 2.58 at the expense of the Twins (72-61), who fell 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central. Kansas City is one game back. Minnesota has a three-game lead on Boston for the final wild card spot.
UP NEXT
Braves: RHP Charlie Morton (7-7, 4.24 ERA) takes the mound Thursday night in Philadelphia. LHP Cristopher Sánchez (9-9, 3.51 ERA) pitches for the Phillies.
Twins: After a day off on Thursday, RHP Pablo López (12-8, 4.26 ERA) starts Friday night to begin a three-game series against Toronto. RHP Kevin Gausman (12-9, 4.10 ERA) pitches for the Blue Jays.
