The Wild Card Series is in the books and, on Saturday, MLB's postseason will continue with the four Division Series. It is a best-of-five series now with travel involved. Both teams will get the chance to play at home, unlike the Wild Card Series.
The Division Series winners advance to the best-of-seven Championship Series, which will decide each league's World Series representative. AMERICAN LEAGUE New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians NATIONAL LEAGUE San Diego Padres at Milwaukee Brewers Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers The Braves outlasted the Philadelphia Phillies in three games in the Wild Card Series. The Padres (over the Chicago Cubs), White Sox (Houston Astros), and Yankees (Boston Red Sox) secured two-game sweeps.
Friday's universal off-day gave the four Wild Card Series winners a little bit of rest ahead of the Division Series. Here now is the biggest question heading into each Division Series. Chris Sale is likely to be a National League Cy Young finalist this season and the Braves needed him to come out of the bullpen to get the final four outs of Game 3 against the Phillies in order to punch their ticket to the NLDS.
That came two days after the 37-year-old threw 6 ⅓ innings and 95 pitches in Game 1. It was the first time Sale pitched on one day of rest since 2011, when he was a reliever with the White Sox. It was the first time he pitched on anything less than three days of rest since the 2018 postseason.
On Friday, Braves manager Walt Weiss acknowledged Sale may not be able to start until Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday. Normal rest following his Wild Card Series Game 1 start would have lined him up for Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday. "Not sure," Weiss said about Sale's Game 2 availability.
A lot of it's going to depend on how Chris feels. Certainly don't want to jeopardize him and his health. He just happened to feel great (for Game 3 on Thursday) when he got to the park, and that's why he was in play.
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