PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies announced that Zack Wheeler would start the first game of their doubleheader on Thursday after Wednesday night’s rainout, and the proclamation stood for all of 14 minutes.

Manager Rob Thomson’s phone rang shortly after the initial decision was made, with Wheeler on the other line. “Is it too late to switch?” Philadelphia’s ace asked. “I’d like to pitch the night game.”

“You’re Zack Wheeler,” Thomson said to reporters on Thursday morning, recalling the conversation. “You can do whatever you want.”

With his change of mind, Wheeler set up a showdown with Braves star pitcher and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale. But like he did in last year’s award voting, Wheeler finished short of Sale.

The right-hander lasted 5 1/3 innings and was charged with six runs, four coming in a fourth-inning Atlanta rally, in a 9-3 Philadelphia loss. The left-hander Sale shut down the Phillies for six frames, helping the battered and bruised Braves escape Citizens Bank Park with a win to end a three-game series.

“I lost my control a little bit,” Wheeler said after the game. “That’s kind of what I was upset about tonight. I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be out there. The first few innings were good, and then they got a couple hits. It just kind of snowballed on me quick, so I gotta move on.”

Wheeler found success early for the Phillies (36-20) as he kept the Braves scoreless for three. He tossed a scoreless first inning, then sawed off Austin Riley’s bat with a 97.9 mph sinker for a groundout to start the bottom of the second as the severed piece of wood flew past shortstop Trea Turner and into the outfield grass. Wheeler got through the third inning without allowing a hit.

In the top of the fourth, Wheeler allowed back-to-back hits on fairly soft contact from Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson. Riley cashed in with a two-run double to left before Ozzie Albies landed a home run just over the right-field wall. It unraveled pretty fast.

“As we got into the game, he just got behind the count quite a bit,” Thomson said. “A lot of foul balls, drove his pitch count up. But even in the fourth inning, it was a couple of broken-bat base hits, a groundball down the line, Albies hits a ball 94, 95 miles an hour that gets out of the ballpark. Those things happen, but early I thought he was really good.”

Wheeler exited the game in the sixth inning with the bases loaded, and reliever Carlos Hernández allowed two runners to score on a hit by Luke Williams. Wheeler let in the six runs on four hits with six strikeouts and four walks.

Sale, Thomson noted, is a difficult pitcher to face due to his 6-foot-6 frame, extension and arm angle. He had that lethal combination working as he surrendered only two hits in a much needed win for the Braves (26-29). Between two games on Thursday, they had three players exit early due to injury (AJ Smith-Shawver, Stuart Fairchild and Nick Allen). Sale was dominant as he struck out eight Phillies batters. Third baseman Edmundo Sosa threw his helmet to the ground after he whiffed to end the sixth inning and give Sale his 2,500th career strikeout.

“Real good,” Thomson said of Sale. “He dialed it up when he needed to. Reached back. Slider was good. Got us out of the zone a little bit.”

After Riley smashed a two-run homer off Joe Ross in the seventh, Philadelphia finally scored two runs in the eighth on a J.T. Realmuto groundout and a Sosa bloop hit. The Braves added another run in the ninth off 27th man Brett de Geus, and Turner responded with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning. But the Phillies never mustered enough offense to threaten.

While Wheeler said there’s no extra motivation or excitement to face someone like Sale, he acknowledged that he’s aware of the other starting pitcher taking that mound. Some opponents require an extra level of performance. He wasn’t able to meet that on Thursday.

“You always try to do well, but sometimes you gotta step up a little bit more, just because you know who’s on the other side,” Wheeler said. “But you’re gonna have those games throughout the year.”