NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

September 28, 2026

Chris Sale

Truist Park

Atlanta Braves

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. The postseason, since you were able to be healthy, how much does that weight just add to the anticipation and excitement for tomorrow?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, it's definitely exciting. You know, I think more than that, just being able to pitch for the first time for this organization in the postseason means a lot.

You know, like I said before, you know, being able to pitch at home in front of our home fans, again, for the first time in the postseason for this organization is going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited for it.

Q. Do you think back to two years ago at all when you were scratched before that game?

CHRIS SALE: Not really.

Q. Obviously very familiar with this Phillies team. What makes this lineup so difficult?

CHRIS SALE: Well, they're obviously a really good team. You know, they're here for a reason. They can do a lot of different things. They can put one in the seats. They can, you know, kind of wreak some havoc. That's my job to try to counter that.

You know, got a lot of respect for those guys. We see them a lot obviously being in division, so should make for some good baseball.

Q. Obviously a every start, every series is its own opportunity, but how you played these guys multiple times this year. How does that prepare you for a start like tomorrow?

CHRIS SALE: Baseball is different because anything can happen on any given day. You can see someone get shut out one day and then score 14 the next day. Same thing, you know, you can have seven days of errorless baseball and make three in the same inning.

So baseball is a little bit different there, but yeah, you know, having some familiarity helps.

Q. You pitch basically every game almost with that playoff-type intensity. Does that just help you that much tomorrow? I mean, maybe there will be a little bit more juice, but does that approach help you this time of year?

CHRIS SALE: Absolutely. I don't think you want to play on your heels ever. I don't think you ever want to take any game, any inning, any pitch lightly, and I think the more you can practice something, the better you're going to be at it.

So, you know, if you're kind of living down here and all of a sudden you've got to come up here, that's too big of a gap to kind of cover. So, you know, if you can kind of live at, like, a seven or a eight, going to a nine or a ten isn't that big of a jump; but you know, if you are living at two, three, and you try to get to eight, it's going to be tough.

Q. Average fastball velocity around baseball was up this year for the sixth straight year, and yours was as well. I'm wondering, how important was that part of your game for this season?

CHRIS SALE: I think it just -- I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to know that getting 97 by someone is a little easier than 91. It's something that I think we're a little bit smarter. We have a lot more help. There's more ways of finding out efficiency.

And I can't speak for everybody, but, you know, I think it takes a lot of work too. I don't think you're going to just roll out of bed and get that. I think the training for guys has intensified, but other than that, I'm not sure.

Q. Do you know who the home plate umpire is tomorrow?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, I was told.

Q. Are you going to be okay with that? I mean, it is what it is, right?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, I really didn't have any reaction to it because I've been thrown out of a baseball game before, and I'm sure whoever threw me out was behind the plate again. We're grown-ups. You know, this isn't, you know, third grade, school yard, playground BS. He's a professional, and he's one of the best at what he does.

I'm a professional, and I'd like to think I hold myself to a high standard. So I don't anticipate there being anything, you know, funny going on tomorrow.

Q. Just wondered from a team focus perspective getting ready to play the Phillies, this is a team that the Braves know from the postseason. Again, every series, every game is its own new opportunity, but how does a team focus on the here and now and kind of push some of that stuff, that noise, and that past to the side?

CHRIS SALE: Well, because it's a new year, it's a new series. Again, I feel like I've spoke to the cohesiveness of this ball club, you know, how we operate individually, but also how we prayed as a unit.

I think just kind of having that steady pace throughout the season. We never really had major ups and downs, you know, emotionally in our clubhouse, so you know, again, that speaks to who Alex is bringing in and how Walt and his staff operate as the leaders of our coaching staff.

Then you get to our clubhouse, like I said, I don't think anyone gets too far ahead of themselves. There's nothing that last year, two years, five years ago, ten years ago that's going to do us any good.

So, you know, again, I think this team has done a really good job throughout the season of, you know, whether it's good or bad, just kind of clearing it and showing up ready to go the next day.

Again, I don't anticipate anything different going into this series.

Q. What does it do for your confidence level knowing that you have a pretty strong defense behind you, especially at this time of year where you don't want to give away too many outs?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, I feel like I've felt confident in my defense all year. Again, as a pitcher strike-outs are cool, but most of your outs are going to come either on the ground or in the air.

Again, being able to lean on those guys and have confidence that if the ball is on the ground, someone is going to get there, you know, again, our outfield, those guys are unbelievable. They have really strong arms.

You look at some of the plays that have been made throughout the season around the entire infield, you know, we have multiple Gold Glovers out there. That's a nice thing to have as a pitcher. Again, like you said, it gives you more confidence to keep throwing strikes and use those guys behind you.

Q. Chris, you talk about not having a lot of emotion up or down in the clubhouse. The arms around you in this rotation, what do you enjoy about the mindset they bring?

CHRIS SALE: I think it's just next man up. Again, talking about just being kind of close with each other, we're always in the bullpen watching each other's bullpens, going over the stuff on the iPad, what we're seeing with our own eyes just in the bullpen, shapes of pitches, you know, types of pitch grip, stuff like that.

Obviously Hef and JP have been amazing leading that charge, but sometimes it's nice just getting another perspective on things.

You know the old saying. Someone can say the exact same thing, but it coming from someone else can just feel different or sound different. You know, we're always kind of -- we're obviously always pulling for each other, and just bouncing ideas and thoughts and stuff like that, and, again, I think just having ball talk.

Sometimes you're not even planning on having a conversation about competition or, you know, the pitch mix or whatever, but somehow it just kind of leads there, and you kind of learn something. You know, I'm definitely thankful for that.

Q. Have you had any conversations with some of the other guys on the staff that haven't been in the postseason about what to expect or anything like that?

CHRIS SALE: No, not yet.

Q. How much do you feed off of the seven, eight playoff appearances that you have had, especially in Dodgers Stadium? Knowing what that euphoria feels like, how much does that further feed your emotions tomorrow?

CHRIS SALE: I think you just learn that it's just about harnessing the energy. Again, you don't -- I learned this from Dave Tollett, my college coach. You can't be better than you are. You can't play above what you possess, and sometimes you go out there and you try to do too much, and you actually do less.

I think just, you know, keeping it together, you know, trying not to be too emotional and letting anything outside affect what your job is because at the end of the day, I understand this is the postseason. I'm not taking anything away from that, but you still got to throw strikes. You still got to get outs. Obviously the stakes are higher, but it's the same game. It's the same field I've pitched at for three years now.

So, again, you understand what's at stake, but, again, like I use this reference a lot, you put the blinders on, you run the race. Then when you get done running, take the blinders off, and then you look around.

Q. ...has taken a lot of hits this season. (Indiscernible). What kind of confidence do you have in who is going to line up behind you in this series?

CHRIS SALE: Again, I think we have confidence in everybody in that clubhouse. If you just put a handful of names in a hat and picked it out, I think everyone would be on board with whoever you pull out.

Obviously, you know, Martin was huge for us this year all year long. You talk about just consistency, being a pro, you know, veteran leadership, the whole thing. I feel terrible because I've been in that exact same situation. You know, you work your butt off all year. You're consistent, and then right when you get to the best part, you know, something happens.

I definitely feel for him in that regard, and he feels terrible. You know, that was tough. But, again, who we have and what they possess, like I said, you could flip a coin, you could throw a dart at the wall, and whoever is taking the ball, everybody in that clubhouse is going to have confidence in.

Q. How far back do you remember maybe the respect for the history of the game and the guys who played it, just finding out the last couple of years how much that's part of you? How far back does that actually go?

CHRIS SALE: I think it's come within the last few years more so than when I was younger. You know, I've had a lot more time over the last five years to kind of look things up. I've had a little bit more free time, but, you know, I think once you start understanding what this is and what it means to people, you start appreciating it a little bit more.

Again, I think going through that grind -- when you are younger you didn't put in a whole lot of work, so there's not a lot that you've done. Once you've kind of done a lot, you realize how hard it is to get to this point and to accumulate, you know, years and numbers and things like that.

So, again, like you look at some of these guys, and I look at what -- I look at what I've done and see where I'm at, and then you see some of these other guys, and it's pretty wild.

So you have a little bit more respect for how they got there because you understand the difficulty it took them to get there.

Q. This is a team with its share of young talent. One, how excited are you to seem them get this chance early in their careers, and how can this opportunity early in their careers help them going forward?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, like I said, I think any experience is good experience. The more you do anything. It's like watching a kid ride a bike. The more he does it, the better he gets.

So, you know, for some of these guys it's a blessing to be able to do this, because I went my first seven years and didn't sniff the postseason.

Again, this is what we all show up for. You know, again, 30 teams show up day 1 of Spring Training with the same goal in mind. To not be able to achieve that is disappointing. It's a failure. The fact that, you know, we're able to do that this year and some of these guys being able to do it in their first year or first couple of years, whatever it might be, you know, they'll hopefully look back and understand how special that is.

Q. How have you been impressed with the way your bullpen has been able to be so consistently lights-out throughout the entire season?

CHRIS SALE: Yeah, I've spoke about them a lot. Again, you're talking about the hardest outs to get towards the end of the game, and it just seems like, you know, whoever you hand the ball to, it's shut-down.

I like to before I come in here look kind of at the box score at the end of the game so I can kind of show some love to guys that deserve it, and I've told Frank. I'm, like, damn it, every time I look at these box score, I'm the only pitcher in the box score to give up runs (laughing).

You know, it's me and Don comes in after me, and then Iggy throws or it's D Lee and DD and Iggy or whoever it is. It's, like, me, and it's, like, two or three and then zero, zero, zero.

You know, do you that, like, five or six times, and you're, like, man, I got to step it up a little bit.

But that just goes to show, you know, how solid they've been throughout the year and how much trust we have in them to be able to walk off the mound after putting everything you've got into it and hand the ball over to someone you have all the trust in the world in, even if it doesn't go well, you know that that was the right move, and they've put the work in to be set up for success.

Q. Chris, some of the younger pitchers, newer pitchers, have said how crucial you were in making them feel so welcome when they to the Braves, not just by saying welcome, but they could feel your authenticity. Are you aware of how powerful your welcomingness is to them, and what does it mean to you to impact young players like that?

CHRIS SALE: Well, that means a lot to me obviously. I think it's important for whoever is in the clubhouse, whoever the leaders are, the tenured guys or whatever. This is a hard game. It's really hard. It's hard to get here. I think the percentages would show that.

For me it's how can I make this easier for them, an easier transition. I speak about this clubhouse a lot when I first got here and how quickly I felt welcomed and how easy of a transition this was for me.

I don't care how old you are or how many years you have. Any time you go to a new team, you're still kind of feeling things out and getting the feel of, you know, the clubhouse and personalities and things like that. I kind of want to keep that going because I feel like you've seen it. We he have had guys get called up and or we've made trades for guys that have had immediate success and had longevity with that success.

You know, again, the better my teammates are, the better our team is. I kind of want to have that culture about this organization where, hey, man, these guys go to the Braves, they're very welcoming, and the guys do well pretty quick. You know, I talk about it a lot too. I had really good veterans when I was young that were the same exact way.

You know, you look at some of the names that I was fortunate enough to play with. Very humble guys that didn't have to be, so I'm very thankful for those guys. Again, I feel like I'm just kind of regurgitating some of the stuff that they did for me and some of the stuff they said for me or said to me.

I leaned on guys hard. I asked a lot of questions because I just didn't know. I got to the Big Leagues pretty quick. I was lucky in that sense. I had no idea what I was doing, and I needed help, and they helped me. That's what I feel my job is to do now.