ATLANTA -- Now that the Phillies have some idea of how their rotation will shake out against the Braves in the National League Wild Card Series, they can turn their focus toward their next task: Figuring out Chris Sale in Game 1 on Tuesday afternoon at Truist Park.
It won't be an easy one.
The 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner put together another Cy Young-caliber campaign -- and a good chunk of that came at Philadelphia's expense. In four starts against the Phillies this season, Sale posted a 2.08 ERA and 29 strikeouts over 26 innings.
The Braves won all four of those games.
"Obviously, Chris Sale being Chris Sale," said Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper. "He's one of the best pitchers in the world."
Harper is just 2-for-21 (.095) with 11 strikeouts in his career against Sale. Both hits were singles, including a dribbler back to Sale.
It's not just Harper. Kyle Schwarber is 5-for-25 (.200) with 10 strikeouts against Sale. J.T. Realmuto is 2-for-18 (.111) with seven K's. Trea Turner is a more respectable 7-for-25 (.280), but he also has seven strikeouts.
The only two Phillies with any real success against Sale are Alec Bohm (7-for-23, .304) and Luis Arraez (7-for-22, .318 with zero strikeouts). Arraez, though, will not play in the NL Wild Card Series.
"He presents a whole set of problems, but we've seen him a little bit," Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. "We haven't been great with him, but we'll see. Tomorrow is a new day. We'll go from there."
Sale is clearly one of the best left-handed pitchers of this generation, but the Phillies' problems against lefties extend well beyond the likely future Hall of Famer.
The Phillies lost 10 of their first 12 games against left-handed starters this season. They ended the season going 27-17 against them for a final record of 29-27 -- which ranked ninth out of 12 playoff teams. But still, they haven't done a lot of damage against the caliber of left-handed pitching they will see in the postseason.
Now, there's no question they have improved overall against left-handed pitching -- and there are tangible reasons for that.
The arrivals of right-handed hitters Derek Hill (acquired from the White Sox on June 11) and Bryan De La Cruz (promoted from the Minors on July 21) have certainly changed the Phillies' look against southpaws. Utility man Edmundo Sosa has also settled into a regular platoon role against lefties.
It's likely all three will start vs. Sale in Game 1.
"We struggled with lefties earlier in the year, and they at least give us some options to put a better crew out there," Mattingly said. "They've produced."
Like most players, however, they haven't produced much against Sale. Sosa is 4-for-21 (.190) with eight strikeouts and zero extra-base hits. De La Cruz is 1-for-8 (.125) with four strikeouts. Hill is 2-for-7 (.286) with a strikeout.
"He's obviously a future Hall of Famer," Harper said. "I think we've done a pretty good job against him the last couple of times."
To Harper's point, the Phillies scored two runs off Sale over six innings on Sept. 4 in Philadelphia. They got to him for three runs over seven innings on Sept. 11 in Atlanta.
Not great, but much better than the one run they managed over 13 innings in two April meetings.
"He's just a good pitcher, man," Schwarber said earlier this season. "When you see his name on the card, it's not like you're going up there saying you're going to go out there and score 10 [runs]. You definitely can, but you know that you're just going to have to go out there and get creative and try to find different ways to score."
The good news for the Phillies is Sale will likely be the only left-handed starter they will face in the best-of-three NL Wild Card Series. The bad news is, if they advance, they'll have the likes of Dodgers left-handers Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell waiting for them in the NLDS. (Not to mention fellow southpaw Justin Wrobleski, who has given them trouble a couple of times this season.)
There's no question that if the Phillies are going to accomplish what they hope to this postseason, they're going to need to break through against some elite left-handed starters.
It all starts with Sale on Tuesday.
"They're, obviously, a really good team. They're here for a reason," Sale said. " … Got a lot of respect for those guys. We see them a lot, obviously, being in-division, so it should make for some good baseball."