At 37, Chris Sale is pitching like time forgot to move forward. The Atlanta Braves ace has made 25 starts in 2026 with a 2.06 ERA, 177 strikeouts and a 1.01 WHIP — numbers that would win the Cy Young in virtually any other season without much debate. On August 27, he touched 100.1 mph against Shohei Ohtani and threw a complete-game shutout against the Dodgers, his first since 2019. The only problem has a name: Jacob Misiorowski.
The Complete Game That Reminded Everyone Why Sale Is Still Elite
Nine innings. Eleven strikeouts. Zero walks. Five hits. 109 pitches. That’s what Sale did to the back-to-back World Series champions at Truist Park on August 27, a 1-0 win that capped Atlanta’s three-game sweep of Los Angeles.
The historical footnote that puts it in perspective: Sale became the first pitcher aged 37 or older to record 11-plus strikeouts in a complete-game shutout since R.A. Dickey did it with the Mets on June 18, 2012. Fourteen years later. And the detail nobody saw coming at his age: that 100.1 mph fastball to Ohtani was his first triple-digit reading since 2018.
According to CBS Sports, his average fastball velocity in 2026 is back to levels he hadn’t touched since his most dominant stretch with the Red Sox. Manager Walt Weiss has a front-row seat to all of it. Sale, for his part, isn’t talking about awards — he’s talking about October.
The Cy Young Race: What Would Have to Happen for Sale to Win It
Let’s be straight: Jacob Misiorowski has owned this award since June. The 24-year-old Milwaukee Brewers righty carries a 1.73 ERA, 222 strikeouts and a 0.75 WHIP across roughly 25 starts — leading the National League in all three categories. In MLB.com’s midseason ballot he had 153 points and 29 first-place votes. Sale sits third with 113 points and zero first-place votes.
For Sale to take the award, Misiorowski would need to collapse over his final four starts in a way that almost never happens. Not impossible, but not the likeliest outcome either. What Dan Clark put on the table as a real possibility — and Sale’s numbers back it up — is that it would take something close to a historic meltdown from the young Milwaukee ace.
What is certain: Sale already won the 2024 Cy Young in his first season with Atlanta, going 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and leading the NL in wins, ERA and strikeouts — the first NL pitching Triple Crown since Clayton Kershaw in 2011. Doing something comparable two years later at 37 is exactly why people can’t stop talking about him.
Why These Numbers Are Rare for Any Pitcher — Not Just a 37-Year-Old
Statcast gives Sale an ERA+ of 203 in 2026, the second-best mark of his career behind his 209 in 2018. In plain terms: he is performing at twice the level of the average MLB pitcher this season.
His Statcast percentile rankings among all MLB pitchers in 2026:
- Strikeout rate (K%): 94th percentile
- Walk rate (BB%): 97th percentile
- Chase rate (O-Swing%): 97th percentile
- xwOBA against: 89th percentile
- Hard-hit rate allowed: 80th percentile
- Barrel rate allowed: 83rd percentile
He’s not just missing bats. When hitters do make contact, it barely hurts. His average exit velocity allowed is 87.7 mph — the lower that number, the softer the contact. Sale is in the 80th percentile in hard-hit prevention and the 83rd in barrels avoided.
The Numbers Behind the Season
What Sale is doing to hitters, measured by Statcast in 2026:
- Starts / Innings: 25 starts, 144.0 innings
- ERA: 2.06 · WHIP: 1.01
- Strikeouts / Walks: 177 K, 28 BB (30.7% strikeout rate)
- xERA: 2.99
- Average fastball: 96 mph / 2,322 rpm spin rate
- Whiff rate: 30.3%
- Batting average against: .219
- Average exit velocity allowed: 87.7 mph
- Barrel rate allowed: 5.3%
The Atlanta Braves closed August at 79-55, five games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East and one game behind the Dodgers in the race for a first-round bye. Sale is the primary reason Atlanta is still in that conversation.
