Chris Sale slammed the door shut on Phillies, but will it cost Braves against Dodgers?

Chris Sale slammed the door shut on Phillies, but will it cost Braves against Dodgers? originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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ATLANTA — It was undeniably the coolest moment, outside of Michael Harris II’s electric three-run home run in the first inning, of the Braves’ clinching 6-2 win in Game 3 over the Phillies on Thursday. But at what cost?

Chris Sale emerged from the bullpen in the eighth inning to face Bryce Harper, who occupies the top rung on Braves fans’ Most Hated Phillie list. There were two outs, the bases were empty and Atlanta had a four-run lead. Things were safely in the hands of Dylan Dodd, with Raisel Iglesias up and available in the bullpen.

Sale, who had thrown 95 stressful pitches just two days prior, came on to drop the hammer on the Phillies. He struck out Harper on four pitches, sending the Truist Park crowd into a frenzy.

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When it came time for the ninth, Iglesias surprisingly stayed in the bullpen, and back came Sale to the approval of the 40,000-plus in attendance. He fired 17 more pitches, striking out Otto Lopez to end things and start a celebration for a team that had not won a postseason series since winning the 2021 World Series and had been eliminated by the Phillies in 2022 and 2023.

Why did Braves manager Walt Weiss decide to use Sale, the projected Braves starter in Game 2 against the Dodgers, with a comfortable lead?

“First of all, I was not going to go to Chris Sale and ask him to pitch tonight,” Weiss said. “I didn’t want to put him in that position.”

But Sale came to Weiss as soon as he arrived at the ballpark Thursday afternoon and told Weiss he felt amazing. Weiss said, “Let’s talk.”

The Braves have given Sale as much extra rest as possible this season, and the 38-year-old has responded with one of the best years of his Hall of Fame career. Sale had at least five days rest on 25 of his 27 starts, and his 2.16 ERA was the third-best in Major League Baseball. He had 200 strikeouts in 162 ⅔ innings and his best WHIP (0.984) since 2018.

Sale knew he would need to volunteer for duty in an elimination game, and he was ready.

“Unbelievable. I’m just thankful for the opportunity, honestly,” Sale said. “This could not be more of a group effort. This was basically a culmination of our entire year. All hands on deck. Everyone is doing everything they can to just get a win for this team.”

And they did get the win, but if the ultimate goal for the Braves is to win the World Series, they need to win 11 more games. The 1 ⅓ innings on Thursday may take Sale out of the equation for Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles in the Division Series, or at least compromise his efforts on Sunday. As it was, a Game 2 start was going to be coming on just four days rest. Will he still pitch Sunday?

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“I don’t know. I have no idea,” Weiss said. “We weren’t even worried about that. It was just, ‘Put this thing down and then we’ll have those conversations later.’ But yeah, we haven’t even talked about that. It was all about tonight.”

That’s fair, to a point. But this game was pretty much in the win column. Sale was not needed Thursday as much as he will be needed to be at full strength Sunday against a rested Dodgers rotation. 

Sale is the Braves unquestioned leader of the pitching staff, and setting an example like he did provides a jolt throughout the clubhouse. Atlanta just better hope he has more fire in that left arm as they move forward.