The Los Angeles Dodgers are painfully familiar with Chris Sale — not as the Atlanta Braves' veteran ace and the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, but as their formidable opponent on the mound when they lost the 2018 World Series.
On Tuesday night, the Dodgers got their revenge against Sale — and they used one of his former Boston Red Sox teammates to do it.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts won his first World Series ring with Sale the Red Sox in 2018 — the same year he was named the American League MVP — before being traded to Los Angeles in a blockbuster deal in 2020 and subsequently signing a 12-year, $365 million extension with the club to keep him there through the 2032 season. On Tuesday, he mashed a two-run homer off of Sale in the sixth inning of the Dodgers' 3-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Betts' home run, which just barely cleared the left field wall, was his third go-ahead homer of this young season. He also scored Shohei Ohtani, the reigning National League MVP who had hit a leadoff single and has now scored in each of the Dodgers' first seven games of the season.
Clutch like Mookie! pic.twitter.com/MnzNgodIOr
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 2, 2025
Dodgers use former Red Sox MVP Mookie Betts to get revenge on Chris Sale for 2018 World Series
Admittedly, Sale looked like his Cy Young Award-winning self in his second start of the season on Tuesday, and things weren't looking great for the Dodgers against Atlanta before Betts hit his two-run homer in the sixth.
The Dodgers couldn't buy a baserunner for five innings against the veteran southpaw. However, Betts' homer was followed by a Tommy Edman single that ended Sale's night. Edman would later score on a Will Smith single, and Sale would earn his first loss of the season after allowing four hits, striking out five and walking none.
Oh, and the best part? Tuesday marked Sale's first time pitching at Dodger Stadium since he recorded three strikeouts in the ninth inning of the decisive Game 5 of the 2018 World Series as a member of the Red Sox. Revenge has never tasted so good.