The Braves have great pitching in their DNA. And, naturally, great pitching is part of their long and speckled postseason history. But they have never seen pitching like they have gotten through these first five games of 2020′s pandemic playoffs.
“It’s been pretty amazing to see what the pitching staff has done. Back to back shutouts just like they did in the wild-card series – there has to be some kind of history involved in this, I’m not quite sure,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said following Thursday’s 7-0 dismissal of the Miami Marlins in their National League Division Series.
Glad you asked. As a matter of fact. ...
That’s four shutouts in five postseason games – already more than in any other Braves staff has produced in any single postseason, including the last one to post as many as three shutouts. That would be the one led by three Hall of Famers in 1996.
The Braves are the second team in major league history to pitch shutouts in four of its first five games in a single postseason. The other is the 1905 New York Giants, none of whom were available for comment.
One member of the ’96 Braves, however, was, responding to a text asking whether he was believing what he was seeing.
“It has been very impressive to watch. ... The young starters have been fantastic,” Tom Glavine answered.
“What them guys did on the mound was almost mind-blowing,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, talking about the whole of his team’s two-game sweep of Cincinnati and Thursday’s completion of a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins. Both teams discovered that it is practically impossible to win if you can’t score.
That’s 49 innings covered by Braves starters – Max Fried, Ian Anderson and Kyle Wright – whose average age is 24.3, two of whom were making their postseason debuts. And a collection of eight relievers, all similarly committed to nothingness. For 46 of those innings, the opponent posted a big, round zero.
Unlike a regular season that saw the bullpen carrying more of the load than the starters, the majority of those postseason innings now belong to Fried, Anderson and Wright (28-2/3). Their combined ERA is 0.92. Over 20-1/3 relief innings, the bullpen’s ERA is 0.44.
Thursday it was the 25-year-old Wright’s turn to show himself in the postseason and join Anderson as two of only five Braves pitchers who threw at least six scoreless innings in their playoff debuts.
Wright was a 1-year-old in 1996 when a Braves staff of Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and company threw three postseason shutouts. Can he really comprehend the kind of historical territory this group is entering?
“We just have a really good pitching staff,” he said when his work was done Thursday. “It’s all about passing the torch (from one pitcher to the next) and putting up as many zeroes as you can. You know those guys in the pen are going to do what they have done all year. It’s pretty cool to have that many shutouts, and it points to how good we’ve been as a staff as of late.”
Snitker, who turns 65 in nine days, owns a little deeper perspective.
“That’s pretty remarkable,” he said. “This is tough to do in any league. And it was everybody. You didn’t have just a dominant couple of guys. You had an entire team full of pitchers doing this. They should be proud of themselves. That’s an unbelievable accomplishment and a testament to their determination and desire and how they work and approach each inning.”
Ho-hum, Thursday, another day another shutout.
After experiencing a little traffic on the base paths the first three innings, the Braves practically put up concrete barricades around the bases. The Marlins grew more dispirited by the inning as from the fourth on, they managed only two base runners. They were shut out and shut down.
How has it been possible? Catcher Travis d’Arnaud points to an attack that involves everyone from the staff to the coaches.
“It’s been fun,” he said. “They’ve been executing. Doing their homework. Trusting the game plan. If they see something with a hitter I hear them talking about it not only that night but the next morning. It’s amazing to be a part of.”
It will get more demanding from here, of course. Neither the Reds (27th in runs scored this season) nor the Marlins (21st) were offensive juggernauts. As the Braves celebrated Thursday, it was unknown whether they’d meet up with the Los Angeles Dodgers – baseball’s runs leader – or the San Diego Padres – third in runs scored.
Nevertheless, Snitker said, “I think the guys in that (clubhouse) are pretty confident that we have a pretty good club and a chance to do something special."
