Chris Sale of the Braves fumbled early in the elimination game

“I came into the office around lunchtime today and the more we talked about it, the better it was not to start him. This is not an injured list situation, but an everyday occurrence. And again, if we could let him pitch and it was safe, we would. But no matter where we want to go, we need him. We need him for the future. So Grant Holmes will start today’s game and that’s part of trying to put everything together now.”

Anthopoulos said Sale first felt the back discomfort during his Sept. 19 start in Cincinnati. In this outing, Sale's velocity dropped to the point where his fastball dropped to 89 mph.

The most obvious question is this: Will Sale be healthy enough to pitch the first game of a potential wild-card series on Tuesday in San Diego — or in that series at all? Anthopoulos couldn't say. He worked with the medical staff to figure it out.

“That’s what we’re going through now (if he could start on Tuesday),” Anthopoulos said. “My first question from a roster construction perspective is whether this is a week and 10 days. two weeks; If we had known this as a candidate and expected it – Grant Holmes threw one inning plus a day ago. We wouldn’t have used him in this game if there was a scenario – that just doesn’t happen.”

After Sale's velocity dropped in Cincinnati, Snitker and Sale said the ace was fine. Snitker maintained this when the Braves gave Sale an extra day before his start against the Mets – but that never happened due to the hurricane postponement. The Braves developed their pitching plans over the final five days with the intention of only using Sale when they faced elimination.

Anthopoulos said the Braves didn't expect this. You can believe him on that. Holmes pitched 1 2/3 innings and threw 21 pitches in Sunday's game against the Royals. He wouldn't have done that if the Braves had prepared for the possibility of him starting Monday.

At first, the Braves' loss to the Mets seemed devastating because it meant they had to use Sale for Game 2 to save their season. Now it's unclear whether there will even be a sale in San Diego if they pull it off.

“Chris, at the end of the day he was often ready to go,” Anthopoulos said. “He was ready the whole time. All of our starters keep busy with things all year round. Chris said he's dealt with much worse. But the worst thing that can happen at the end of the day is that he goes out for an inning, two innings, three innings and it's not good – we have to qualify for the postseason – we lose him for the postseason or he does is affected next year there will be a problem with his arm or something. It just didn’t make sense to do that.”

If Sale had been able to pitch in the second game of the doubleheader, the Braves would have taken an unnecessary risk with their season on the line. But it sounded like the team was worried that Sale could risk a more serious injury. In this case, their decision makes sense.

The sale will be part of their rotation in 2025. Plus, they need him if they want to have strong postseason success. The Braves didn't want to put him in an unsafe place.

“Once we made all of our plans and talked to all of our starters, (Sale) said he's been pitching stuff all year, his entire career, and he's ready to go,” Anthopoulos said. “This was the first time he came to us and said, 'Look, I don't know what tomorrow is.' This was the first time he said, “I don't know, but let's see.” It's an everyday thing right now. …It's a cramp. We talked about it together. The right thing to do is to (not blame) him and let it go day by day and make sure he's right. That’s exactly where we are.”