Braves bet on full-strength Sale in Game 3 after turning down his plea

Chris Sale told Atlanta's bosses he was available and felt strong, volunteering to pitch Game 1 of the NLDS on short rest Saturday against the Dodgers, according to www.usatoday.com.

He was also willing to pitch Game 2 on Sunday on regular rest, despite throwing 24 pitches in relief Thursday in the NL wild-card series against the Phillies.

Alex Anthopoulos, Atlanta's president of baseball operations, and manager Walt Weiss listened after the Game 1 loss but decided against the gamble.

Sale had pitched on four days' rest only twice the entire season, per the source.

"I really felt confident in myself in starting Game 2," Sale said. "I felt confident in my ability to go out there and be able to perform at a high level. I reiterated that plenty of times to them."

The Braves heard him. They just didn't agree.

No confirmation exists of any specific injury or physical limitation beyond the source's mention of limited four-day rest starts. The decision was about diminishing returns, not durability.

Weiss laid out the math: pitch Sale twice on regular rest, and you get a diminished ace both times. Hold him for Game 3, and you get the full version — with a possible impact in Game 5, like the relief outing in the Phillies series.

"That's what it came down to," Weiss said. "We didn't want to have a somewhat diminished Chris Sale twice because it would have been regular rest, but he had the (relief) outing in between, and it just didn't make sense to us."

THE LOGIC BEHIND THE DECISION

The Braves' calculus started with a simple question, per Weiss: what does the team actually gain from Sale on regular rest in Game 2?

"If you have Sale in Game 2 and Game 5, as people were screaming about," Weiss said, "we saw it as you're getting a diminished Chris Sale twice at that point."