Chris Sale is back on the mound for the Braves on Thursday, and Toronto is listing Mason Fluharty as its starter in a matchup that looks nothing like a normal pitching night. The Blue Jays entered at 29-33 and had lost four straight, while Atlanta came in with the biggest division lead in baseball.
That is why readers are circling this game now. Sale has been one of baseball's most reliable starters at home, where he is 4-1 with a 0.60 ERA and has allowed only two runs in 30 innings. For the season, he is 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP, and most Toronto hitters have not seen him much. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, the two Blue Jays with the most obvious history here, are a combined 10-for-41 against him.
Fluharty is the detail that turns this from a standard Thursday start into something stranger. DraftKings listed him as Toronto's starter even though he had not pitched more than 1.1 innings in any game this season and had already pitched on Tuesday. Toronto's bullpen has already thrown 5 innings in the series, and the club is also short-handed with three starting pitchers on the injured list, which makes the Blue Jays' plan look less like a traditional start and more like a bullpen game against one of the best home pitchers in the sport.
That gap matters because Toronto's relief corps was described as average in the league, which is not the kind of group you want trying to cover a long night against Sale. The Blue Jays are still trying to climb out of early-season trouble, and the matchup puts the burden on a pitcher who has barely worked beyond an inning at a time to hold off the Braves long enough for Toronto to get back into the game.
The next question is whether Fluharty actually opens the game or simply serves as the first name in a patchwork plan to get the Blue Jays through Thursday. Either way, Toronto's best hope of stopping the slide may depend on surviving Sale long enough to hand the ball to a bullpen that has already been asked to carry too much.
