Hindsight is always 20/20, and the Atlanta Braves were hoping that everyone would forget about their decision not to start Chris Sale in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. The Braves obviously won to split the games in LA, and Walt Weiss was going to look like a genius if starting Sale in Game 3 allowed the team to take down Yoshinobu Yamamoto and seize the series lead. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.
The Braves' biggest problem in Game 3 was that Yamamoto was insane. Much has been made about the Atlanta offense's struggles and those criticisms are completely fair, but I'm not sure any team was going to hit Yamamoto on Tuesday night. However, Sale did not look crisp at all. He is such a good pitcher that he limited the damage, but Sale's lack of command torpedoed his efficiency, and he was anything but dominant.
In fact, once you use a wider lens, that Sale struggled against LA actually makes the Braves' decision not to let him pitch Game 2 look even better.
The version of Chris Sale from Game 3 could have really cost the Braves in Game 2
Thus far, time travel has not been invented yet, so we will never know how Sale would have pitched had he played in Game 2, nor do we know how much fresher he would be right now if he didn't come in to close out Game 3 of the Wild Card round against the Phillies. The question we should be asking ourselves instead at this point is whether or not the version of Sale we saw in Game 3 against LA would have won Game 2.
The honest answer is probably not. The offense squandered a lot of scoring opportunities in Game 2 out in Los Angeles, and the Dodgers had a lot of tough at-bats against Sale on Tuesday. Had the Braves started Sale, they could have easily returned to Atlanta down 2-0 and with precious little hope of a comeback.
However, hope is not lost yet. Tyler Mahle has to continue his dominance against the Dodgers on Wednesday in Game 4. However, if that happens, the Braves will then have to go out to LA and run out what is likely to be the same bullpen game arrangement as in Game 2. Based on what we saw from Ray Kerr and Didier Fuentes in that game, that may not be such a bad thing.
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