Braves Announce Rotation for Pivotal Phillies Series

The Atlanta Braves can't seem to catch a break.

Not only have they dealt with injuries to virtually every single position on the roster, with only Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna making all 132 starts so far this season, but the schedule hasn't done them any favors.

Take Chris Sale, for instance. The frontrunner for the Cy Young, he's made 24 starts this season, with the 25th set for tonight in the series finale versus the Minnesota Twins. They've been very good starts, too - Sale is 14-3 with a 2.62 ERA, striking out 191 batters in his 147.2 innings.

Only one of them has come against the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies.

(Sale's Atlanta debut, coming on March 31st, was against Philadelphia. He went 5.1 innings with two runs allowed on five hits, walking two and striking out seven in a no-decision. Atlanta lost 5-4.)

The team officially announced the rotation for this weekend's final series of the season against Philly, a four-game set in Citizens Bank Park, and Philadelphia will once again miss Sale.

Here's the scheduled matchups for both teams:

Thursday, 6:40 PM ET: Charlie Morton (7-7, 4.24) vs Cristopher Sánchez (9-9, 3.51)
Friday, 6:40 PM ET: Reynaldo López (7-4, 2.02) vs Ranger Suárez (11-5, 2.82)
Saturday, 7:15 PM ET: Max Fried (8-7, 3.50) vs Zach Wheeler (12-6, 2.74)
Sunday, 7:10 PM ET: Spencer Schwellenbach (5-6, 3.72) vs Aaron Nola (12-6, 3.30)

The Braves are 6-3 in the first three series against the Phillies, needing just one win to lock up the season series. But Philadelphia's in a better position - six games up in the NL East (prior to today's action) and so the Braves need to do better than just one win over the weekend to close the gap. Winning a seventh consecutive division title is still within reach, but the margin for error is slim.

And without Chris Sale, it's even slimmer.

But there is one thing going for the Braves: The vibes. With the way that Atlanta's 100-plus win teams of the last two seasons were eliminated by Phillies squads who got into October via the wild card, many across baseball are expecting the reverse to happen this season.