Sale will pitch with three extra days of rest.
Coming off arguably their most important win of the season, the Atlanta Braves will turn to reigning Cy Young winner Chris Sale on Wednesday night against the New York Mets.
Sale was a little slow out of the gate this season (by his lofty standards, anyway) but has been as good as anyone in the National League over the past two months with a 1.41 ERA, 2.28 FIP and 2.92 xFIP with 75 strikeouts and just 18 walks over 57.1 innings. He’s surrendered one run or less in five consecutive starts and is coming off a masterful seven-inning performance against Milwaukee last week.
The Braves opted to push Sale back from his start on Sunday, which gave the veteran lefty three full days of extra rest. Fingers crossed it was purely a rest decision and something isn’t lingering; the Braves can’t afford it.
Paul Blackburn missed the first two months of the season and now finds himself in New York’s rotation with the Mets down a few starters due to injury. Blackburn made his season debut on June 2 in the rotation but then pitched out of the bullpen twice before returning to the rotation with Kodai Senga on the IL. The veteran righty throws as many as five pitches but generally won’t ramp anything above the low-90s. This is, on paper, Atlanta’s biggest pitching advantage in the series.
First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. ET.