Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale ruled out for Wildcard game #2 with back spasms

«It's a day-to-day thing for now,» Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said. «We could make roster moves between games and all of that, but it's not [too significant]. It's a spasm.»

«He'd been throwing all week just to keep his arm going,» Anthopoulos said. «He went out to throw [on Sunday] and came in after and told us that his back was tight. He said he's pitched with worse. So we said we'll talk in the morning. He came in the office around noon and the more we talked, the right thing was to not [pitch Monday].»

«[Sale] is crushed,» Anthopoulos said. «There was a little bit of, 'Should he go out there or not?' But ultimately at the end of the day, if you're not at your best and you don't ultimately believe you can help your team and you can hurt yourself, it's not a good outcome across the board.»