One game won’t exorcise all the demons of yesteryear, but the Atlanta Braves made a huge first step in turning things around on Opening Day, dominating the Kansas City Royals to the tune of a 6-0, wire-to-wire victory. Chris Sale was uncharacteristically shaky in the early going, but the bats (three dingers!) and gloves (lots of flash!) showed up in full force — sprinkle in a little luck, and you have a recipe for a feel-good Friday night.
Things even looked auspicious early. After a Maikel Garcia single started the game, Sale pumped in a get-me-over fastball to Bobby Witt Jr., and was “rewarded” with a hard-hit but routine double play ball to Mauricio Dubon at shortstop. Though Royals ace Cole Ragans and his defense got two outs on two grounders in three pitches, Ozzie Albies jumped all over a 2-1 floating changeup and yoinked it into the left-field corner for the Braves’ first homer, and run, of the season. It was a cheapie, coming off the bat at less than 97 mph and traveling less than 370 feet, but we’re exorcising demons here. Ragans probably didn’t intend to float a 2-1 changeup, and he looked shaky afterwards. Matt Olson yanked a pitch way below the zone for a hard single, and then Ragans walked Austin Riley on four pitches. Unfortunately, Eli White had a weak bounceout to end the rally.
Sale’s second inning was a mess, but it cleaned itself up. A hard single, a hit-by-pitch, a strikeout, and a four-pitch walk loaded the bases and brought up Isaac Collins. Sale got ahead with a slider, and then threw a fastball that ended up considerably lower than where it was likely called for… but Collins didn’t do anything with the pitch and instead bounced it right to Dubon for another bacon-saving double play.
Ragans bounced back, striking out the side (but also walking Jonah Heim) in the bottom of the inning. Sale continued to wobble in the third — two walks and two strikeouts, but was bailed out by White’s diving catch of a liner to left that would’ve tied the game.
And then the Braves more or less took over the proceedings. Drake Baldwin swung at and barely tipped what would’ve been fall four from Ragans to start the bottom of the third, but then got a misplaced fastball that he sweetly hoisted over the brick wall in right. Ragans is actually a bizarre reverse splits guy (are they real? If so, Ragans would be a paragon of the cause), but had been taken deep by lefties all of three times in his entire career, and none since September 2024… at least until Drake Baldwin had his say in the matter. Albies followed by lacing another floating changeup for a single up the middle. The Braves kind of took the wind out of their own sails a bit by having Albies try to steal with Olson at the plate — not only did Olson take a strike when Albies was thrown out, but then he struck out on the next pitch. Riley followed with a bloop single, and White struck out.
By the fourth, we were done with Shaky Sale and had progressed back to the expected, Smooth Sale(ing). He threw a 1-2-3 frame, with two groundouts and a strikeout. After Heim drew another walk off Ragans, it was Michael Harris II’s turn to go off, as he took a hanging first-pitch slider and bashed it for a two-run homer. So, just to be clear: Cole Ragans pre-facing the Braves tonight — three career homers yielded to lefties; Cole Ragans tonight — two homers yielded to lefties. Go figure. At this point, while it wasn’t inconceivable that the Royals could rally, the game started to feel like a fait accompli. Sale ended up with just one more baserunner (a Witt leadoff single) as he completed six frames. The defense continued to help him out — Olson, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Riley all made nice defensive plays to keep the outs tally growing.
Ragans departed after four in favor of Bailey Falter, who was fine for two innings before the Braves got him in his third frame of work. At one point, there was a near-surreal sequence where Acuña struck out looking and challenged the call, with it being confirmed by the slimmest of margins, only for Baldwin to follow and get thrown out trying to beat out a slow roller by a similarly-microscopic sliver. But, in the seventh, a combination of what were essentially bloops by Olson, Riley, and Dubon scored two more runs. The first two bloops were donut holes, but Dubon’s was basically a routine fly ball that just so happened to split the defense in right center, capping the scoring at 6-0.
The Braves’ bullpen had no adventures. Dylan Lee had a nine-pitch inning with three outs in the air. Robert Suarez had a couple of bloop hits go against him in his Braves debut, but collected a strikeout and got a groundout to escape. Tyler Kinley wrapped the game up while looking somewhat unrecognizable, peppering the zone with breaking pitches in a way that baffled the Royals and exhausted their remaining outs.
Overall, it was hard to ask for an easier, more relaxing win — after Sale settled down, anyway. Good enough pitching, some flashed leather, and, oh yeah, homers. We don’t yet know if that’s how the Braves will do it in 2026, but it’s what they did tonight, and it was great.
Walt Weiss got his first win as Atlanta’s skipper. Sale’s line was only okay in the end (6/3 K/BB ratio, and a hit by pitch), but he improved as the game went on and no one’s gonna complain given the game itself. The Atlanta side of the box score generally looked pretty sweet, with Albies and Olson each collecting two hits, and Riley having a perfect 3-for-3 night with a walk, though two of his three hits were bloops and the third was an infield hit not cleanly handled by the defense. The only guy that didn’t have a good time, on paper, was Acuña, who struck out three times, and had a couple of weak balls in play otherwise. Ah, well, he can have the spotlight another day.
Ragans had his worst start by FIP ever and his worst start by xFIP since August 2024, as he managed just a 5/4 K/BB ratio and gave up three bombs. Falter saved the Kansas City relief corps with three innings and a 4/0 K/BB ratio, though he did suffer bloop damage in the seventh.
The series continues tomorrow with a Reynaldo Lopez-Michael Wacha matchup, as the Braves will try to add some old priest/young priest action on top of tonight’s soul-cleansing win.
