Chris Sale wanted the ball, but Braves said no. Now comes the payoff. - USA Today
LOS ANGELES — Atlanta ace Chris Sale not only told his bosses he was available, but that he felt strong.
He volunteered to pitch in Game 1 of the National League division series on short rest Saturday against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
He was more than willing to pitch Game 2 on Sunday instead of relying on another bullpen game, knowing he would be on regular rest as a starter, although he did throw 24 pitches in relief Thursday in the NL wild-card series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
"I really felt confident in myself in starting Game 2," Sale said. "I felt confident in my ability to go out there and be able to perform at a high level. I reiterated that plenty of times to them."
Alex Anthopoulos, Atlanta's president of baseball operations, and Atlanta manager Walt Weiss listened to him after their Game 1 loss, knew that he was willing to do whatever they wanted, but sorry, it made no sense to take that kind of gamble. Sale had pitched on four days' rest only twice the entire season.
"If you have Sale in Game 2 and Game 5, as people were screaming about," Weiss said, "we saw it as you're getting a diminished Chris Sale twice at that point. We wanted to get a full-strength Chris Sale, and that's Game 3. Then, possibly impacting the game in Game 5 like we saw in the Phillies series.
"That's what it came down to. We didn't want to have a somewhat diminished Chris Sale twice because it would have been regular rest, but he had the (relief) outing in between, and it just didn't make sense to us."
Now, they have a fully-rested Sale, the former Cy Young winner and still one of the finest lefties in the game, starting for the first time in a week Tuesday in Game 3 against the Dodgers and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto at Truist Park (6 p.m. ET on FS1).
"As we sit here today, it's the best-case scenario that we could possibly have," Weiss said. "Now we win the bullpen game, and now we have a fresh Chris Sale ready to go."
And now they silence all of the keyboard warriors and critics, who somehow believe they know Atlanta better than the folks who make a living running the team, and know their players better than anyone.
"Look, I know it's professional sports, man, and in professional sports, you're only a success really in the moment that you're having success," Weiss said. "That's it. Then you have to do it all over again.
"That's why you've got to be mentally tough, man, if you want to sit in my seat, Alex's seat, because it can get pretty vicious out there."
Certainly, no one is putting champagne on ice, or even hinting that they might now have an advantage over the powerful Dodgers, but Weiss and company know that a fresh Chris Sale is a dangerous one. He pitched an old-fashioned shutout against the Dodgers the last time he faced them in August. Sale has a 2.13 ERA this season when having six days of rest.
And if there’s a Game 5, guess who’s ready to come out of the bullpen? Yep, just like 2018 when Sale came in relief and closed out the World Series title for the Boston Red Sox.
"I think it just reiterates the all-hands-on-deck mentality," Sale said. "It's really where I learned it. I've never been in the postseason before I got to Boston. When you get there, and you're around winners and that mentality and that kind of culture, you see what winning at all costs looks like.
"I even got a text from (former Red Sox manager Alex Cora) that night of Game 3 of the wild-card game, and even just getting a text from him was awesome because he was someone I learned a lot from as a manager. Talk about a winning mentality and all hands on deck and just the love for your teammates, the willingness to sacrifice yourself to do whatever it is for the team.
"The conversation just always kind of comes back to the feeling we have with this team is a very similar feeling I have to that '18 Red Sox team."
Who knows, with a rested Sale, a rested Tyler Mahle, who has a 1.99 ERA since being acquired at the trade deadline, and a lights-out bullpen, no wonder why Atlanta now believes they might have something special going on, and could shock the baseball world.
"We have a lot of work to do," Sale said. "It's not over yet. You can't start getting ahead of yourself, but we're confident in who we have in our clubhouse, and we're confident moving forward."
