Bath (13) 24
Tries: Browne, Banahan Cons: James Pens: James 4
Sale (12) 20
Tries: McAlister, Cueto 2 Con: McAlister Pens: McAlister
A late Matt Banahan try saw Bath come out on top in a ferocious clash with Sale to move up to second in the table.
An early Luke McAlister try gave Sale the lead, but two yellow cards cost the visitors as Bath fought back to edge into a 13-12 advantage at the break.
Mark Cueto's second try of the game put Sale 20-16 ahead, before a Butch James penalty cut the gap to a single point.
Sale were within seconds of victory but Banahan got on the end of an Alex Crockett chip to seal a memorable win.
With only two points separating the sides going into the game, the sell-out crowd at The Rec would have been expecting a closely fought encounter and they were not to be disappointed.
An early confrontation between Justin Harrison and Sebastien Chabel set the tone for a bad-tempered encounter in which referee David Rose played a prominent role, but the first score of the game went Sale's way.
606: DEBATE
A visibly incensed Chabal received a yellow card soon after though for a flurry of punches on Bath scrum-half Michael Claassens as the game began to turn nasty.
The home side took instant advantage as Browne was driven over by his team-mates to score under the posts, and it was not long before Sale were down to 13 men as veteran prop Stuart Turner was sin-binned for blatantly killing the ball.
Bath skipper Michael Lipman became the third player to get the yellow card for a late tackle on Hodgson, and the momentum went back the visitors' way with Cueto squeezing in after ignoring an overlap outside him.
Butch James nailed a penalty on the stroke of half-time to put Bath into a narrow lead, but it was Sale who made much the better start to the second half.
McAlister regained the lead for Sale with a well-struck penalty from long range before James replied in kind for Bath.
Both kickers missed shots at goal as the pressure intensified, but Sale surged ahead as a lovely finish from Cueto saw him leaving opposite number Nick Abendanon clutching thin air.
The penalty count had gone against Sale all game, and a powerful Bath scrum gave James the chance to narrow Sale's lead to 20-19 with eight minutes to go.
Sale threw everything into shutting Bath out with a McAlister tap-tackle on Crockett exemplifying their efforts, and when Chabal turned over the home side's possession late on it looked as if they would hold on for the win.
But with the seconds ticking down Bath regained the ball and spun it out wide where Crockett put boot to ball for Banahan to out-jump Cueto and score the match-winning try.
Bath head coach Steve Meehan:
"It's an important win. We're not playing as well as we can but we've become quite resilient.
"In a competition as tough as this, teams are not going to go through many games without a rough trot.
"If we are going through our rough trot, but still winning, then that is a nice position to be in."
Sale director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre:
"We were penalised 15 times against five. You want consistency from the referee, but there wasn't any today.
"We were penalised in attack, in defence and in the scrum.
"We came here to win and be physical and it was a fantastic game. I can't blame my guys: the only thing we didn't do was control the last three minutes."
Bath: Abendanon, Maddock, Crockett, Fuimaono-Sapolu, Banahan, James, Claassens, Barnes, Mears, Stevens, Harrison, Short, Faamatuainu, Lipman, Browne.
Replacements: Cuthbert for Abendanon (74), Bemand for Claassens (69), Dixon for Mears (71), Bell for Stevens (71), Hooper for Harrison (63), Beattie for Faamatuainu (63). Not Used: Hape.
Sin Bin: Lipman (27).
Sale: Cueto, Bell, Tuilagi, McAlister, Doherty, Hodgson, Peel, Sheridan, Briggs, Turner, Chabal, Schofield, White, Abraham, Fernandez Lobbe.
Replacements: M. Tait for Tuilagi (70), Faure for Turner (47), Cockbain for Schofield (74). Not Used: M. Jones, Fearns, Wigglesworth, Keil.
Sin Bin: Chabal (15), Turner (23).
Att: 10,600
Ref: D Rose (RFU).
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