We worry about Braves’ pitching — while they continue to pitch great
A funny thing happened while Braves backers watched and waited for the team to trade for a top-tier pitcher.
The Braves kept winning while their starting pitchers produced strong numbers. Maybe they are out to prove that Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos didn’t need to add a top-tier starter before Monday’s deadline.
“I hope so,” manager Walt Weiss said before the Braves beat the Marlins 11-3 on Thursday night for their eighth straight victory. “I always talk about finding something that puts that chip on our shoulder, whatever it is for you. You need it in this league …
“I really like how our guys have responded, not just to the trade deadline stuff, but just responded overall to a tough month in June and coming back and playing at a really high level. (It’s) not easy to do when you get knocked back like that.”
Braves starting pitchers have done their part during the team’s turnaround.
They had a streak of 14 consecutive starts with no more than three runs allowed from July 22 through Wednesday. Braves starters had MLB’s second-best ERA from the All-Star break through Wednesday and the sixth-most innings pitched during that stretch.
Martín Pérez held the Marlins to no hits or runs over three innings Thursday before a rain delay ended his night. Pérez has compiled a 1.42 ERA in four starts since the All-Star break. Chris Sale has the same ERA in three starts, and Bryce Elder has compiled 1.88 ERA in four starts.
Sale, 37, is the one premier pitcher among the bunch. Weiss has juggled the rotation to keep him fresh. Sale’s scheduled start on Tuesday was pushed back to Saturday. He’ll be pitching on nine days’ rest when he faces the Yankees on Saturday in New York.
There was a lot of worrying about the Braves when their NL East lead dwindled from 9½ games to begin June to two games at the All-Star break. There doesn’t seem to be proportionate tranquility with the Braves winning 15 of 18 games since the break to push their division lead to 8½ games.
The angst increased with the underwhelming trade haul. It’s as if concerns about the Braves not being built for a deep playoff run are overshadowing what’s happening now on the field.
Count me among those who believe the Braves lack enough pitching to win in October. But I’m also one of the few people who puts more stock in winning division titles than playoff runs.
Teams can get lucky over the small sample size in the postseason. The true measure is what they do from April through September. The Braves are proving to be a team built to last over the long haul.
Two pitchers they acquired in trades, starter Tyler Mahle and reliever Brent Suter, will help with that. Weiss has enough high-level pitchers in his bullpen to mix and match in the playoffs should the starters falter.
Five Braves relievers have a 2.63 ERA or better: Raisel Iglesias; Dylan Lee; Didier Fuentes; Dylan Dodd; and Robert Suárez (currently on the injured list). Lee, Fuentes, Dodd and Iglesias have strikeout rates that rank among the top 60 in MLB for relievers with at least 30 innings pitched.
The Braves also have the bats to do damage in October. The team ranks fourth in homers and fifth in extra-base-hits rate. That’s despite catcher Drake Baldwin missing 12 games in June and outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. missing seven (Acuña homered twice on Thursday).
The Braves were 9-14 in June while scoring the fewest runs in the majors.
“We had some middle-of-the-order-type bats that weren’t there,” Weiss said. “That had something to do with it. But the fact of the matter is (that) in all aspects of the game, we took a step back in June, (or) more like three weeks.
“It wasn’t good in really any phase. We just had to deal with it, fight through it, and they have. They’ve come out of the other side and back to 24 games above (.500). Really impressed with what the guys have done.”
So am I. The Braves are on their way to winning the NL East. They haven’t done that since winning six division titles in a row from 2018-23. The Braves lost in the wild-card round in 2024 and finished with a losing record last year.
Plenty of outsiders think they don’t have enough pitching to go far in October. The Braves will get a chance to prove us wrong.
You can now get my column sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for my newsletter here.