Luis Arraez improving but not on Phillies’ wild-card roster; Otto Kemp takes his place

ATLANTA — While celebrating with his team in the clubhouse postgame on Sunday, Luis Arraez was wearing a walking boot, protected by a plastic bag wrapped around it.

The Phillies second baseman continues to get positive updates on his sprained left ankle, according to interim manager Don Mattingly, but not positive enough to be included on the wild-card roster. The full list, which is expected be released ahead of Tuesday’s Game 1, will include Otto Kemp in Arraez’s place.

“We still get improvement every day,” Mattingly said of Arraez. “He was going to try to hit [Monday] and wasn’t able to do it, so we kind of crossed that bridge today.”

» READ MORE: Jesús Luzardo will start Game 1 for Phillies; Andrew Painter could follow out of bullpen

Kemp struggled with limited major league playing time early this year and has been with triple-A Lehigh Valley since getting optioned on May 28. In 108 games with the IronPigs this year, Kemp had a .227 batting average and .736 OPS.

The Phillies will also continue to carry three catchers — J.T. Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs, and Rafael Marchán — on the postseason roster, like they have for most of the year. Mattingly said that due to a slew of injuries to the Phillies’ triple-A depth, there weren’t any other options for another position player on the roster.

As the IronPigs’ season wound down two weeks ago, they were forced to put pitcher Mitchell Neunborn at second base after running out of players.

“They’ve had a lot of health issues down below. That’s kind of where it’s taken us,” Mattingly said. “But actually the third catcher is not terrible for us, because [Stubbs] is pretty versatile. We use him as a pinch runner. We use him at first. We can play him at third. We can play him in the outfield. So he is a guy that gives us a lot of versatility, and not a true, true base stealer but a guy that you really trust on the bases, that can get a bag if you don’t pay attention.”

Right-handed reliever Jonathan Bowlan will also be on the Phillies’ wild-card roster. Bowlan has not appeared in a game since suffering a groin strain on Sept. 17. He was also available on Sunday, but Mattingly opted against using him, concerned that the wet, slippery mound could lead to Bowlan reinjuring himself.

The Phillies will have a tough task ahead of them on Tuesday with left-hander Chris Sale taking the mound for Atlanta. The left-hander is amid a career renaissance at 37 years old, and even figures to once again be a Cy Young Award finalist with a 2.16 ERA. He started four times against the Phillies this year, and the Phillies lost all four games.

The Phillies have a .167 batting average against Sale this season. For their fifth meeting of the year, they will also be without Arraez, who has a .318 career average against the veteran lefty.

But even for the hitters who have historically struggled against Sale’s velocity and unique arm slot, there’s some advantage to facing a pitcher so many times. The more looks one gets at Sale’s four-seam and slider, the easier they can be to pick up.

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“I think the more you see a pitcher it’s always beneficial, but he’s so good, he’s probably going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” said Trea Turner, who is 7-for-25 in his career against Sale. “The year he’s had has been unbelievable. He’s had another great season, and he’s one of those guys that’s always going to be there and give you a hard time.

“We know it’s not going to be easy. We’re looking forward to it. He seems like a really good competitor. I think we’ve got a lot of those in our clubhouse as well. Just going to battle and find a way to beat them.”

The familiarity extends both ways, though. Just as J.T. Realmuto and the Phillies pitching staff will be trying to find ways to give Braves hitters different looks, Drake Baldwin and Sale will do the same on Tuesday.

“Their hitters have a lot of at-bats off of our arms, as do we against their guys,” Realmuto said. “It feels like there’s a little more of the cat-and-mouse game of we can’t do the same things we’ve done all season. Even if they’ve worked, there’s times you’ve got to go away from things.

“Obviously I’m not going to dive too much into that, but there’s definitely more of a cat-and-mouse game when you’ve played teams this much, and had this many at-bats against guys.”

Jesús Luzardo (14-5, 2.86 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday’s Game 1 opposite Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA).

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