Here a nine-figure salary, there a nine-figure salary, seemingly everywhere a nine-figure salary. There are not too many nights when you can point to a position and say the man playing a certain position for the Dodgers makes $17 million less this season than the opposing player at the same position.
This was one of them. The Atlanta Braves are paying Chris Sale, the nine-time All-Star, $18 million this season. The Dodgers are paying Emmet Sheehan a little less than $1 million.
You might not have bet on this outcome in the sports books or prediction markets: The Dodgers won.
Not because your home team has suddenly become a plucky underdog, even if the Braves (26-13) have a better record. The Dodgers (24-14) dented Sale for three runs in seven innings — one on a home run by Freddie Freeman ($27 million this year), one on a double by Kyle Tucker ($55 million), and one on a single by Shohei Ohtani ($70 million).
Final score: Dodgers 3, Braves 1.
Two of the Dodgers’ pitching stars on Friday arrived in Los Angeles together, in a little-noticed trade that now stands out as one of Andrew Friedman’s best. In the fifth inning, Alex Vesia relieved Sheehan and induced a two-on, two-out fly out from Matt Olson, who might be the National League’s most valuable player to date.
In the sixth inning, Kyle Hurt stranded two runners on base to complete a scoreless inning and lower his earned-run average to 0.90. In 2021, Friedman acquired Vesia and Hurt from the Miami Marlins for middle reliever Dylan Floro.
Will Klein, Brock Stewart and Tanner Scott finished off the Braves on a night the bullpen delivered 4⅓ shutout innings.
Vesia’s one-batter, one-out performance earned him his first victory of the season, with Scott working the ninth for the save.
Each team scored once in the second inning, with the Dodgers adding an unearned run in the fifth on the Ohtani single and a final run in the sixth on Freeman’s fourth home run — and first since April 6.
It is not that Sheehan outpitched Sale. But Sheehan pitched well enough, against a very good opponent and a very good opposing pitcher, for the Dodgers to consider this progress.
“This is going to be a good test,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game.
Sheehan fired his fastballs from 94-96 mph in the first three innings, and six of his first eight outs were strikeouts. His fastball velocity dropped into the 92-93 mph range in the fourth and fifth inning, and four of his final eight batters reached base.
The line was good enough: one run over 4⅔ innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts. How long the Dodgers might stick with a pitcher with a 4.79 ERA could be determined by how long Tyler Glasnow stays on the injured list. Glasnow hit the IL Friday because of back spasms, so the question of whom the Dodgers drop from the rotation to make room for Blake Snell is moot for now. The Dodgers plan to activate Snell from the injured list Saturday and start him against the Braves.
The Dodgers hope to activate shortstop Mookie Betts from the IL Monday, and the question of whom the Dodgers drop from their roster could be determined in part by the status of Miguel Rojas, who left the game in the eighth inning. Rojas tripped getting out of the batter’s box in the second inning, slid hard into home plate in the fifth inning, and was hit as he took a throw in the sixth.
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