Postseason baseball is supposed to be low-scoring. The teams still standing generally got there because of quality pitching, and the onus is on the hitters to adjust, to generate offense and apply pressure.
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So consider: In their first two games of the National League Division Series, the Dodgers are 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position, and all eight of their runs have come via the home run. Going back further, they were 10 for 53 in the last seven games of the regular season, four against the San Francisco Giants and three against the San Diego Padres.
That’s not going to get it done. Especially since the Dodgers figure to be up against it on Tuesday in Atlanta, in the type of marquee pitching matchup we don’t see often enough: Braves left-hander Chris Sale against the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Atlanta manager Walt Weiss wound up playing this one perfectly when he opted to give Sale two extra days of rest by holding him back for Game 3 … or, at least, that’s the apparent plan for the moment.
Weiss threw some more mystery into the mix during his media availability on Monday afternoon in Atlanta when, asked if there were any thought to moving Sale back to Game 4 and using Tyler Mahle in Game 3 instead, he said: “We’ve had all these conversations, but yeah, look, we’re not done talking. As we sit here, we’re looking at Sale for Game 3.”
Leave just enough doubt, in other words. Isn’t gamesmanship wonderful?
“We were ready for anything,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Game 2. I’m guessing that still applies.
The mystery originally developed because Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA, 0.98 WHIP in 27 starts) was used in relief in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against Philadelphia last Thursday, striking out Bryce Harper to get out of the eighth inning and then working the ninth to finish off the 6-2 victory that sent Atlanta on to the NLDS.
The part of that move that seemed puzzling at the time, and potentially fodder for a huge second-guess: With a four-run lead, why send Sale back out for the ninth? Weiss’ explanation, when asked before Game 2: “If it starts to go sideways (in the ninth) and Sale is now out of the game, we’re in a tough situation. So he was going to stay in and finish that game, and I’m glad he did.”
Now Weiss looks smart. The Braves threw bullpen games twice in L.A., got a split and are playing with house money. Would he dare roll the dice again and save Sale for Game 4, with the possibility that his team would be facing elimination if the Dodgers were to win Tuesday?
From here, that’s doubtful. Why wouldn’t he press the advantage right now?
“I told (Weiss) I was available” for Game 2, Sale told reporters in Atlanta on Monday. “I told him even if they needed me for Game 1, which I knew was probably a stretch – again, like I said, the work that I put in, the work that our training staff and our strength coaches put in to get me to this position, I felt confident in my ability to go out there and be able to perform at a high level.
“… You get to this time of the year, and again, it’s all hands on deck. It’s everybody doing everything they can to get one out, to get a run, to get a base runner. I think, again, that’s who our team is and that’s what everybody in here is willing to do.”
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This is Sale’s 16th major league season, and he has 159 victories and a 2.95 ERA in the regular season. He does have a 1-3 record and 5.83 ERA in 12 postseason games, eight of them starts. But he also pitched twice for Boston against the Dodgers in the 2018 World Series: A four-inning no-decision in Game 1 at Fenway Park in an 8-4 Red Sox victory, and a 1-2-3 relief appearance in the ninth inning of Game 5 in which he struck out Justin Turner, Kiké Hernández and Manny Machado to wrap up a 5-1 victory and Boston’s championship.
Sale noted Monday that he learned a lot about winning after going from the Chicago White Sox to the Red Sox.
“I’ve never been in the postseason before I got to Boston,” he said. “When you get there and you’re around winners and that mentality and that kind of culture, you see what winning at all costs looks like.”
The Dodgers have seen him twice this season. Sale gave up two earned runs in seven innings and lost, 3-1, at Dodger Stadium in May, and he pitched a five-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory on Aug. 27 to complete a three-game sweep of the Dodgers in Atlanta.
Sale “just sort of bullied us with the fastball at the top of the zone, and then there was some chase down below,” Roberts said Monday, recalling that August start. “And with the lefties, throwing more two-seamers to keep us honest and to then expand away.”
But Tuesday’s other starter has had his own memorable moments on the postseason stage. Yamamoto was the World Series MVP last year, with three victories – one his second complete game of the postseason, the last a memorable 2⅔ inning relief stint to close out Game 7. Yamamoto’s postseason numbers in two years on this side of the Pacific: 7-1 with a 2.25 ERA.
“There should be a lot of talk about Chris Sale,” Roberts said. “But our guy has been pretty dang good and has been a very good pitcher in the postseason. So we feel very good about that.
“Now, (it’s about) going out there, defending the way we should, capable of. And then on the other side just – it’s going to be a good fight. I think both pitchers are going to pitch well. And it’s kind of who grinds out at-bats best.”
Given the last couple of weeks, for the Dodgers that would be a most welcome change.
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