Atlanta Braves ace left-hander Chris Sale will not start Game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday, the team announced. Sale got four outs and threw 21 pitches to close out Game 3 of the Wild Card Series on Thursday. On Friday, Braves manager Walt Weiss indicated Sale might not be able to start until Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday.
"A lot of it's going to depend on how Chris feels," Weiss said Friday. "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.
He's had to grind here recently. So we're going to err on the side of giving him more rest, if it's even close." Lefty Ray Kerr, who turned in a heroic 3 ⅓-inning outing as an opener in Game 3 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, will open Game 2 on Sunday. Righty Grant Holmes seems likely to again follow Kerr as the bulk reliever.
He threw two innings and 28 pitches on Thursday. Game 2 will be Atlanta's third straight bullpen game, for all intents and purposes. The Braves typically give Sale, 37, extra rest between starts.
He started on normal rest only twice during the regular season, both times back in April, and he started only three of Atlanta's final 28 regular-season games as they managed his workload. Sale won the 2024 Cy Young award but was not available that postseason because a back issue popped up late in the regular season. Sale allowed three runs in 6 ⅓ innings in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series on Tuesday.
Sale then came out of the bullpen to get four outs in Game 3 on Thursday. It was the first time he pitched with one day of rest since he was a reliever with the Chicago White Sox in 2011. He hadn't pitched on even three days of rest since the 2018 postseason.
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