ATLANTA — The first question for Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale in the postgame interview room Friday was about how he settled down to work seven solid innings after giving up a first-inning leadoff homer to Marcus Semien. Sale smiled and swatted it aside like the veteran he is.
“To be honest, nobody cares,” he said. “We’re here to talk about one thing and one thing only.”
And Sale was correct.
Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud hit three home runs, including a tiebreaking sixth-inning grand slam in the Braves’ 8-3 win against the Texas Rangers, thrilling a sold-out crowd at Truist Park that saw a Braves catcher hit three homers for the first time since Dale Murphy did it in 1979 against the San Francisco Giants.
“No one cares about the pitching, no one cares if the fan beat The Freeze … tonight was about Travis, and that was nothing short of electric,” Sale said. “It was just a very fun game to be a part of. Three-homer games, how often do you see something like that? And for it to be your catcher, it just makes it more special.”
After hitting solo homers off left-hander Andrew Heaney in the second and fifth innings, d’Arnaud stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two out in the sixth, the score 3-3, and hammered a 95 mph fastball from left-hander Jacob Latz that was on the outer part of the plate.
He drove it 433 feet, over the center-field fence and into the history books, d’Arnaud joining Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Gary Carter as the only catchers to have multiple three-homer games in a career. And unlike d’Arnaud’s other three-homer game, for the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium, this one came at home.
Enjoy all 3️⃣ of Travis d’Arnaud’s homers from this evening 😁#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/Z8GsgwSz8i
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 20, 2024
“I felt like I was 150 pounds running the bases, instead of my normal 220,” d’Arnaud said of the roaring he heard when he gave Sale and the Braves a 7-3 lead. “I was trying to hold in my smile a little bit till I hit home plate. Yeah, it’s surreal. I hope every baseball player gets to feel that.”
They won’t. Adam Duvall is the only other player in the Braves’ Atlanta era (since 1966) to hit a grand slam as part of a three-homer game, but Duvall’s feat came in a 29-9 rout of the Miami Marlins in 2020. This one came in what had been a tie game against the defending World Series champions.
“It’s great for him,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Just one of them nights you dream about having.”
When d’Arnaud hit three homers for Tampa Bay on July 15, 2019, the last was a three-run shot against Aroldis Chapman with two out in the ninth to turn a two-run deficit into a 5-4 win over the Yankees.
“It was cool doing it at home for this one,” d’Arnaud said. “The other one, we were down by two and I hit a three-run homer off (Chapman) with a 3-2 count, top of the ninth. So that was pretty cool, too. It was the complete opposite, though. This one, crowd went wild, and the other one, the crowd was silent. So, little different in that aspect.
“But to have it be a grand slam is pretty sweet.”
D’Arnaud hit 29 homers during the past two seasons but had none in 14 games before Friday. He’s been handling the bulk of the catching duties while Sean Murphy recovers from an oblique strain.
His first three homers of the season helped assure Sale would be rewarded with a win for his performance, to go with a memory the lanky lefty said he’ll never forget.
“He’s obviously working his butt off behind the plate, calling a great game, mixing in and out and just (working) with the game plan,” Sale said of d’Arnaud, “and then for him to go on the other side of the ball and do what he did — like I said, nothing short of electric. Legendary. Awesome. Fun to be a part of. And you felt it tonight in that stadium. The energy was wild. It was unbelievable.”
Both Sale and d’Arnaud are 35, the catcher being 49 days older than the pitcher. They’ve seen things, with a combined 26 major-league seasons between them and each with a World Series ring. But to hear them describe Friday night, particularly Sale, was to hear two old pros sounding like kids again.
Sale (2-1) limited the Rangers to five hits, three runs and one walk while matching his season high with seven strikeouts, becoming the first Braves pitcher to go seven innings this season and improving to 9-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 13 career starts against the Rangers. That’s the lowest ERA among the 39 active pitchers who’ve worked at least 40 innings against Texas.
But he had no interest in talking about any of that. Only wanted to talk about d’Arnaud and this Braves team, which traded for Sale in December and immediately signed him to a two-year extension.
When d’Arnaud came to bat with two out in the eighth inning, moments after Michael Harris II hit a solo homer, all of the Braves, including Sale, were standing at or near the dugout railing, smiling, talking to each other excitedly, hoping to see d’Arnaud hit a fourth home run.
“You hate to say it, but you’re almost expecting it, right?” Sale said of that possibility, which ended when d’Arnaud grounded out.
But the atmosphere of the moment is something Sale won’t forget.
“It’s one of those things that’s kind of the beauty of this game, the magic that’s in the air, and your mind can go to places because of things that have happened prior,” Sale said. “And obviously you go up and hit three home runs in the fashion that he did, too — we were down and then he puts us up, and we’re even and he just blows it open. That’s kind of the beauty of this game, that little hit of magic that’s always there and the wonder, and the little bit of expectation.
“But just an all-around great night for him. One of those you don’t forget. You hang your hat on that one, for sure.”
The three d’Arnaud homers measured a combined 1,302 feet — the longest was 440 feet — and all three were hit at 107.1 mph or higher.
“He didn’t get cheated,” Sale said, laughing. “He hit probably, what, a quarter-mile of home runs tonight? It was, like I said, just a fun game to be a part of. Special night, and I’m glad I got to be in the box score for that one.”
(Photo: Kevin D. Liles / Atlanta Braves / Getty Images)
