ATLANTA -- Chris Sale stood as one of baseball’s top pitchers for nearly a decade. One of his greatest memories was closing out the 2018 World Series for the Red Sox by striking out each of the three Dodgers he faced in the ninth.

The 35-year-old left-hander has accomplished plenty throughout his career. But baseball’s humbling nature has also reminded him to always appreciate the love the fans showered him with at Truist Park on Sunday afternoon, when he helped the Braves complete a three-game sweep with a 5-2 win over the D-backs.

“The ovation at the end was really special,” Sale said. “My whole family is here. To be able to share that with them and my team was really nice.”

Seeing Sale pitch into the sixth inning for the second time during this young season provided a happy ending to a weekend that had been anything but friendly for Braves starting pitchers. Spencer Strider struggled Friday, and now may be heading toward a second Tommy John surgery. Max Fried allowed six runs in the first inning of Saturday’s game.

But thanks to two big comebacks, a scoreless weekend for the bullpen and Sale’s successful home debut, the Braves walked away from the weekend having swept the reigning National League champions.

“This was my first time pitching here ever, and then it was my first time pitching here as a Brave, so it was special,” Sale said. “I felt the energy throughout the whole game.”

With Strider possibly done for the season, the Braves' offseason acquisition of Sale might prove to be even more significant. The veteran southpaw finished among the top six in balloting for the American League Cy Young Award over seven straight seasons (2012-18). But multiple injuries limited him to a total 151 innings from 2020-23.

After the Braves got the Red Sox to essentially pay for Sale’s salary this year in exchange for Vaughn Grissom, a rival executive complimented Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos by admitting he and his colleagues hadn’t even thought about this option.

The baseball world might have started to give up on Sale over the past couple years. But the lefty will continue to draw accolades if he pitches like he did on Sunday, when he allowed just two runs and four hits over 5 1/3 innings. This was nearly the exact line he had produced in his March 31 season debut, minus the fact he surrendered one additional hit that day in Philadelphia.

“The [front office] went after him because they were convinced he was back to doing what he was capable of,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “No situation is going to be too big for him. I thought [catcher Chadwick] Tromp did a really good job with him again.”

With Sean Murphy sidelined by the oblique strain he suffered on Opening Day, Tromp has been behind the plate for both of Sale’s starts. He can take credit for the slider accounting for exactly half of the 96 pitches Sale threw against the D-backs.

Sale threw his slider at least 40 percent of the time frequently over the final few months with Boston last year, with mixed results -- but so far in '24, he's seeing its increased use paying off.

“I threw a couple [sliders] in the bullpen and I was just yanking it,” Sale said. “Then I got my direction and that was all on Tromp. He saw it kind of evolving throughout the whole game.”

Tromp has served as a starting catcher at the big league level just 32 times. But Sale stuck with his same approach by never shaking off his catcher. His reasoning drew some laughs when he provided a reminder of who he worked with in the early portion of his career.

“In high school, your coach calls the pitches,” Sale said. “You get to college and I dare you to shake off your college coach. I’d still be running, I think. Then, I got to the big leagues and my first catcher was A.J. Pierzynski. I’ll let y’all figure that one out.”

The "if it’s not broke, don’t fix it" approach has worked well for Sale. If he remains healthy and whole this year, more rival executives are going to question why they didn’t take the gamble the Braves did.