ATLANTA -- There will be plenty of time to debate whether Chris Sale should have been used as a reliever to close out the Phillies last week. But the current focus should be on a maddening Braves offense that provided yet another reminder that Sale can’t do it alone.
Sale looked like his usual dominant self through the first couple of innings of a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NL Division Series on Tuesday night at Truist Park. But he seemed to fatigue just before surrendering home runs to Enrique Hernández and Freddie Freeman during a decisive fourth inning.
While Sale allowed three runs over five innings, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed just four hits over seven innings. Drake Baldwin’s RBI groundout in the fifth accounted for the only run scored against Yamamoto.
Baldwin, who is 3-for-23 this postseason, came to the plate with the bases and one out. His soft grounder to first was followed by an inning-ending groundout from Ronald Acuña Jr., who has gone 3-for-21 through Atlanta’s first six playoff games.
After winning a bullpen game at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, the Braves seemed to be in good position. But now that Sale’s start was squandered, they will send Tyler Mahle to the mound in Wednesday’s Game 4 with their season on the line.
A win would extend this best-of-five series to a Game 5 on Friday at Dodger Stadium. A loss would end a season during which Sale carried an injury-depleted rotation.
Whenever the Braves needed Sale, he delivered. This included last Thursday, when Sale was asked to record the final four outs of Game 3 against the Phillies in the NL Wild Card Series. The 37-year-old hurler entered to face Bryce Harper with none on, two outs and Atlanta leading by four runs in the eighth.
Sale ended up throwing 21 pitches in that relief outing, which came just 48 hours after he had thrown 95 pitches in a Game 1 victory. The other bullpen options that night were Brent Suter, Victor Mederos and Raisel Iglesias, who had pitched both of the previous two days.
Sale’s relief appearance was immediately viewed as a cool, energizing moment. But there’s now certainly reason to second-guess the decision.
Given how Sale fatigued in this outing, the Braves look even wiser with their decision to decline the lefty’s wish to start Sunday’s Game 2. But the effects of last week’s relief appearance may have carried into this week.
Sale joined Mike Hampton (2003 NLDS Game 2) as the only Braves pitchers to record six strikeouts through the first two innings of a postseason game. He induced eight swings-and-misses during those first two frames. But he didn’t induce a single swing-and-miss while recording just one strikeout over his final three innings.
After escaping a bases-loaded threat in the third, Sale surrendered Andy Pages’ leadoff single in the fourth. Hernández then drilled a two-run shot over the left-field wall. It was his 17th career postseason homer. Two batters later, Freeman hit his 18th career postseason home run, nine of which came for Atlanta.
In all best-of-five postseason series that have been tied 1-1, the team that wins Game 3 has gone on to win the series 48 of 67 times (72%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams leading 2-1 heading into Game 4 on the road have won the series 26 of 37 times (70%), with 20 of those clinching victories coming in Game 4.