Braves & Chris Sale prep for crucial 3-game Phillies series

And as we come back into the newsroom, we're going to stay on the sports topic and talk about the Atlanta Braves. The Braves got that much needed win on Thursday and now the focus shifts to another big weekend as they take on the Phillies Chris Sale gets the ball tonight, facing Philadelphia for the 4th time this season. So what does Atlanta need from sale and which bats need to step up to be able to win this series? So joining us now for our weekly Braves check in is Lindsey Crosby from the Locked on Braves podcast. Lindsey, thanks so much for being here this afternoon. Thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure. Well, so let's break it down. So yesterday's game. Obviously good that we got that win. Did Martin Perez deliver what was essentially a must win for the Braves? Yesterday he really did just kind of given the fact that Atlanta is facing a first place Tampa Bay team at the same time that Philly is facing a first place Houston team and Philly was doing better in the series. So every game that you lose in Philly wins your lead gets smaller. Martin Perez has a great start. He gets Atlanta the win and not only does he have a great start, he looks dominant doing it. He goes seven scoreless innings and after the first inning he allows a grand total of one hit. And two walks just showed the ability to shut down a very, very good lineup. Tampa Bay has one of the best offenses in baseball to shut them down for an extended time period, and so it tells you a lot about not only. Where he is right now, but what he could do for you in October. So now we have to turn around to the Phillies, so they played tonight. How important is it for Chris Sale to be able to set the tone to be able to deal with the pressure? Obviously going into this series, this is what he says he wants, right? He wants the pressure. He wants the expectations, but knowing this series is likely going to decide the division, you have to win the Chris Sale start. Hazel Sousa Rd pitches on Saturday in game two. Chris sales not matched up with an ace for the first time in forever, but Hazel Sousa Rd is going to Hazel Sousa Rd is coming off a complete game shutout of the Braves. And so you have to get the Chris Sale win. On the books so that you have a chance of not being swept in this series. If you get swept, the division leads down to one game, so you need Chris Sale. So this will be the fourth time that sale will be facing the Phillies this year this season. When you see a team that often, who is the advantage? The pitcher or the hitters here? Normally I would say it's the hitters. That's a great question because so much of pitching is doing changing up your sequencing the orders you throw your pitches and trying to be different to be a hitter. And when they see you 1011 12 times, they have an advantage because they've seen all of your sequences. Chris sales pretty unique in that everything works around a really good slider and Chris sale throws that slider more than any other pitch. And he says either you hit it or you don't. And so normally the advantage would be with Philadelphia here. But I think this time Chris sale still has the advantage because that stuff is so good and he's not doing anything especially different. He throws the slider. You either hit it or you don't. So this is the rare time when Atlanta has the advantage despite Chris sale facing them four times and twice in the last week. Yeah, so if the Braves are going to be able to take this series, which hitters do you think are going to have to be the difference maker in all of this? A big thing is it's going to come down to Matt Olson, right? Robert Junior has gotten hot recently. He's been much better lately than he has in the last couple of weeks, but Matt Olson's kind of been the engine that this team is powered by. This offense relies on him sitting in the three hole hitting for power, getting the home runs, but driving in hitters. He doesn't have an extra base hit in the month of September, and Ronald can only do so much, especially when you're able to pitch around him. But if you can have Ronald Jr, Drake Baldwin, and Matt Olson as the one through three and Olson can drive those guys in, that is the difference between the Atlanta Braves scoring one run in any and potentially scoring three or four. So obviously we have the three game series starting tonight with Philly. How many games do you think you're going to feel comfortable with to be able to feel comfortable that we're going to get that? Hopefully the Eastern Division crown if the Braves can win two out of three, then come on. Coming out of this weekend, I'll feel pretty good about Atlanta's chances of taking the entire thing. It's not if you only go one and two. The division is not over. You still have a lead, but it's a lot closer. You win two games, then for all intents and purposes, this division is yours, barring some sort of monumental collapse in the final two weeks of the year. So what about their chances getting a first round by? Is that getting tougher? That's getting a lot tougher simply because the Dodgers have one of the easiest schedules in all of baseball. Yes, they lost Shohei Ohtani, but outside of that they have one of the easiest schedules and you happen to have one of the toughest schedules. So does Philly like you face the Cubs after this? They're the best offense in baseball. You face a lot of really good teams still. While the Dodgers finally caught a break, good for them and they're kind of cruising to the end of the season. Lindsay, anything else you would want people to know as we get ready for the Phillies game tonight? It's going to be a fantastic environment this weekend. The Braves have a lot of different activities planned in the ballpark, so make sure you're there. And if you're not, you can check out. We have live postgame shows from myself and from Jake Mastriani on Locked on Braves after all three games this weekend on the Locked on Braves YouTube channel. And remind us where we can find just YouTube. You guys are on social media as well, right? Yes, we're on. So Locked on Braves is on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. I'm on social media at Crosby Baseball. Jake is on social media at shortstop ball, so check us out. Sounds good, Lindsay Crosby. I really appreciate your your expertise and breaking down the weekend matchup that we're going to see as the Atlanta Braves take on the Phillies. It's going to be a good one tonight, especially hopefully the Braves get the win we need tonight. Lindsay Crosby, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. Thanks for having me.