Drake Baldwin drove in four runs to support the stellar pitching effort of Chris Sale and help the Atlanta Braves defeat the visiting Athletics 5-1 on Wednesday in the rubber game of their three-game series.
Baldwin was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and has hit safely five of the first six games with seven RBIs. The reigning Rookie of the Year was robbed of a home run by center fielder Denzel Clarke in the seventh.
Sale (2-0) worked six innings and allowed one run on one hit with three strikeouts. He retired 18 of the 19 batters he faced. Sale now has 2,858 strikeouts, leaving him 19 away from catching Atlanta great Tom Glavine for 29th on the all-time list.
Robert Suarez, Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias each pitched one scoreless inning to nail down the win and give Atlanta its second straight series victory.
The losing pitcher was Luis Severino (0-1), who struggled with control and was pulled after 3 1/3 innings. He allowed four runs on four hits and five walks, with seven strikeouts.
Severino’s wildness began in the first inning when he walked three batters but did not allow a run. Ronald Acuna Jr. was picked off first base — the team’s third pickoff through the first six games — and Matt Olson and Mike Yastrzemski struck out.
Severino walked two more batters in the second inning, and the Braves made him pay. With the bases loaded, Baldwin lined a single to left field that drove in two runs.
The A’s got on the board in the fourth inning. Andy Ibanez had a homer taken away by left fielder Yastrzemski, but Shea Langeliers followed by hitting his league-leading fifth homer. The hit was the first against Sale, who had retired the first 11 batters he faced. Langeliers went 2-for-4 and raised his average to .375.
The Braves enlarged their lead with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Baldwin doubled to drive in two runs and Olson followed with an RBI single.
