Braves, Phillies prep for pitching duel between last year's best

The top two finishers in the 2024 National League Cy Young Award race square off Tuesday when the Atlanta Braves host the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of a three-game series.

Chris Sale is coming off a tremendous season for Atlanta in which he went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA to earn his first career Cy Young Award. He received 26 of the 30 first-place votes to edge Philadelphia's Zack Wheeler, who went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA.

Wheeler (1-0, 1.38 ERA) is taking aim at his first career Cy Young again this season -- and he's off to a promising start. The 34-year-old right-hander has allowed only two runs and five hits in 13 innings through his first two outings of 2025, racking up 18 strikeouts against only two walks.

He dominated the Colorado Rockies over seven innings in his last start, allowing one run and three hits with 10 strikeouts in a 5-1 victory.

"He's the total package," Phillies shortstop Trea Turner said after that outing.

Meanwhile, Sale (0-1, 5.40) has surrendered three runs in five innings in each of his first two starts. He continues to sport an excellent strikeout-to-walk ratio (12-to-1), but he remains in search of his first win.

"Five innings, three runs ain't gonna get you too much a whole lot," Sale said after his most recent start. "So, I would like to be able to do better than that."

Of course, that won't be an easy task against a Phillies team that has won seven of its first nine games. Philadelphia captured two of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, capped by an 8-7 victory on Sunday.

"I know that we have a good team," said Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos, who hit a grand slam in Sunday's win. "I know we have the team that is not going to roll over for anybody."

While several of the Phillies' top players are off to a good start, including Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber (1.037 OPS), nobody on the team is hotter than utilityman Edmundo Sosa.

Sosa has notched a multi-hit game in all five of his starts this season, making it hard for Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson to keep him out of the lineup.

"We gotta really look at this because, so far, it's real," Thomson said. "Two hits every game. He's played great at third, he's played great at short. He did well out in center field (Saturday). We've really gotta get in the lab and try to figure out some stuff to get him in the lineup."

Atlanta, meanwhile, is 1-8 in the early stages of a season that began with World Series aspirations. The Braves still have lofty goals, but manager Brian Snitker knows the team needs to turn things around quickly.

"What we're going through is tough, very tough," Snitker said recently. "Everybody knows it. Those guys in there are more aware of it than y'all are. They feel it. It's hard. And there's nothing you can do but to fight your way out of it."

The Braves went 7-6 against the Phillies last season, outscoring Philadelphia 63-40 along the way.

--Field Level Media