A postseason series is often won by trusting the best arms when the pressure is at its peak. Yet, with the Atlanta Braves entering Game 2 with a 0-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Dodgers, they are doing the exact opposite.
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Instead of handing the ball to their ace Chris Sale, the Braves are turning to their bullpen for a third straight game. A decision announced just a little more than 4 hours before the game even stunned Derek Jeter.
Sale’s 2.16 ERA ranks third in his 16-year career, and he reached 200 strikeouts for the ninth time, credentials that make benching him in Game 2 even more puzzling.
“It’s kind of hard to believe if you think about it. Atlanta Braves have historically thrived on starting pitchers. Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, Avery. Chris Sale’s in that group, too. Now they’re going into their third straight bullpen game,” Jeter said via Fox Sports: MLB.
The Braves’ handling of Sale reveals a risky pattern. In the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sale was brought out of the bullpen in the 8th inning to record the final four outs. However, the Braves already held a comfortable 6-2 lead.
Critics questioned why the Braves burned their ace in a four-run game.
Sale started Game 1 two days prior, throwing 95 pitches across 6.1 innings. Returning on virtually zero rest to throw 21 high-stress pitches out of the bullpen meant he handled an immense workload over a 48-hour window.
The concern proved true as the Braves manager Walt Weiss pointed to Sale’s health.
“The deciding factor is always going to be how Chris is feeling,” Braves manager Walt Weiss noted Saturday.
“Now, to me it’s not that big a deal when he pitches. He’s going to pitch in this series. The Dodgers can’t win it in two. So he’s going to pitch. It really doesn’t matter when.”
Keeping Sale until Game 3 risks a 0-2 deficit the Braves may not recover from.
Moreover, Sale had a complete shutout record the last time he pitched against the Dodgers in August. But with the current decision, the Dodgers should get a boost, as the Braves are starting with their bullpen after the Wild Card Series Game 3 and NLDS Game 1.
Ray Kerr, the Game 2 opener, is returning after a 47-pitch, 3 ⅓ inning outing in Wild Card Game 3. Additionally, Didier Fuentes could throw multiple innings out of the bullpen.
For the Dodgers, avoiding Sale while placing Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the next two starts means they are already at an advantage.
This can end in a similar Philadelphia Phillies pickle when they decided to start Aaron Nola instead of Zack Wheeler during the decisive Wild Card game against Atlanta.