Familiar Foes, Fresh Stakes : Braves and Phillies open playoffs in Atlanta
Braves Turn to Chris Sale for Wild-Card Opener Against Phillies
ATLANTA —
After navigating a regular season filled with pitching injuries, the Atlanta Braves will have their ace on the mound when the postseason begins Tuesday afternoon.
Left-hander Chris Sale will start as Atlanta hosts longtime National League East rival Philadelphia in Game 1 of a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series.
“For sure, it’s a different feeling when a guy like that is taking the mound on a big day,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Monday.
Sale went 14-9 with a 2.16 ERA during the regular season and was particularly dominant against Philadelphia. He finished 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his starts against the Phillies, giving Atlanta confidence after injuries depleted its rotation.
“It’s a great feeling,” first baseman Matt Olson said. “He’s been nothing short of amazing for us—just the teammate and the pitcher and the bulldog he is on the mound. I wouldn’t want anyone else starting for us.”
The Braves finished 94-68 and captured their seventh NL East championship in nine seasons. They won nine of their 13 regular-season meetings with the second-place Phillies and finished six games ahead of them in the division.
Philadelphia, however, has history on its side in October. The Phillies have won each of their past three postseason series against Atlanta, eliminating the Braves in the 1993 National League Championship Series and again in the 2022 and 2023 NL Division Series.
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly acknowledged the challenge Sale presents but said his team is ready for another opportunity.
“He’s got to be one of the top two lefties in the league, top few pitchers in the league, so yeah, he presents a whole set of problems,” Mattingly said. “But we’ve seen him a little bit. We haven’t been great against him, but we’ll see. Tomorrow’s a new day.”
The Phillies finished 88-74 and secured the third NL wild-card spot with a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.
All-Star left-hander Jesús Luzardo will open Tuesday’s game for Philadelphia. Luzardo went 14-5 with a 2.86 ERA during the regular season and pitched a scoreless eighth inning in Sunday’s clinching victory.
Now, two familiar rivals will meet again with little margin for error—and with Atlanta counting on Sale to help rewrite its recent postseason history against Philadelphia.