BRONX, N.Y. — The series did not end the way the Bronx wanted, and it barely started the way the umpires expected.
ESPN’s final box score shows the Atlanta Braves beat the New York Yankees 2-1 in 10 innings on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. Matt Olson’s seventh-inning home run gave Atlanta the first lead; Trent Grisham answered in the eighth; Ha-Seong Kim scored the go-ahead run in the 10th on Michael Harris II’s single to right. Raisel Iglesias earned the win (1-2); Tyler Kinley finished the 10th for the save. Atlanta improved to 71-47 and remained alone in first place in the NL East, 8.5 games ahead of Philadelphia.
Sale ejected before a pitch
Multiple national reports — including UPI and Fox News Sports — said Braves ace Chris Sale was ejected by third-base umpire Dan Merzel before the first pitch, even though Sale was not scheduled to start Sunday. The ejection grew out of Saturday’s controversial balk call that scored a Yankees run and helped snap Atlanta’s winning streak in a 5-4 loss.
UPI’s game-day account said Merzel tossed Sale after talking with the left-hander near the Braves dugout; Sale then spoke with crew chief Dan Bellino. Sale had worked six innings with eight strikeouts on Saturday and left still fuming over the balk. Sunday’s pregame ejection kept him out of the dugout for a series finale he was not supposed to pitch — a rare clubhouse-and-broadcast storyline that framed the afternoon before Grant Holmes threw a pitch.
How the 2-1 win was built
ESPN’s scoring summary is short and clean:
- 7th, ATL: Olson homered to right-center (393 feet) — 1-0 Braves.
- 8th, NYY: Grisham homered to right-center (392 feet) — 1-1.
- 10th, ATL: Harris II singled to right, scoring Kim — 2-1 final.
Holmes started in place of a normal Sale-adjacent rotation day and delivered six shutout innings: three hits, two walks, two strikeouts on 77 pitches (48 strikes). The bullpen bridge included Dylan Dodd, Daysbel Fuentes, Iglesias, and Kinley. New York managed four hits and one error; Atlanta also finished with four hits.
Standings after the series salvage
ESPN’s postgame NL East table listed Atlanta at 71-47 (.602) with a one-game winning streak after dropping the first two games of the Yankees set. Philadelphia sat 63-56. The Mets, Atlanta’s next opponent, sat 52-67 and were scheduled into Truist Park on Monday, Aug. 10, with Bryce Elder lined up in club video and schedule listings against New York’s rotation.
A 10-inning road win after a pregame ejection is not a September clinch. It is, however, the kind of series salvage that keeps a first-place club from leaving New York with a three-game skid and a narrative about umpires instead of about Harris’s bat and Holmes’s six zeros.
What travels without invented quotes
No clubhouse monologue is required to file this one. The verified public record is: final score 2-1 in 10; Olson and Grisham homers; Harris II’s go-ahead single; Sale’s pregame ejection tied to Saturday’s balk; Atlanta 71-47 atop the East; Mets next at home.
WACN 21 will update from official box scores as the Truist Park Mets series opens Monday night.