Baseball gods, don’t you want to give this Braves starting pitching a chance next week? This could be the best rotation in the postseason field, after all.
“I think a lot of people know that, too,” outfielder Michael Harris said. “(If) we get in, get hot and just keep rolling. It can be a scary team. It can be similar to the 2021 team (that won the World Series). So just getting in is the main thing.”
The Braves are on the verge of qualifying for the postseason largely because of one group. Since April, all the talk has centered around the team’s phenomenal starting pitching. Even as one of them would hit the injured list, he’d return with a vengeance. The team had three All-Stars – Chris Sale, Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez – along with veteran Charlie Morton and breakout rookie Spencer Schwellenbach.
In a season of so many ups and downs, and seemingly endless injury frustration, the rotation has remained a pleasant constant.
“It’s been unbelievable,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Our rotation here, top to bottom, is the best since I’ve been the manager here, really. With the emergence of Schwell, Lopey, then you add Max, Chris; Charlie is just so consistent, takes that ball and what he does. When you lose a guy like Spencer (Strider), to have the depth to overcome that, it doesn’t happen all the time.”
The past two nights, with a postseason berth at stake, the Braves have won behind Fried and Lopez (the latter of whom returned from the injured list to allow one run over six innings). While their wild-card competitors Arizona and New York have floundered, the Braves have leaped both thanks to their greatest strength.
“It’s been a really special rotation,” Harris II said. “I guess they’re pretty much the main reason we’re in the position we are now. The offense wasn’t really going a lot of the year, and they kept us in games close enough to have us do a little something to help us win as well. So they’re a lot of the reason we’re in this position.”
The Braves rank third in rotation ERA (3.59). Consider that number also is reflective of spot starts. The next-best mark among NL postseason teams is the Phillies’ 3.80. The numbers can’t properly paint the entire picture either because the pitchers have operated with such little margin for error because of a punchless offense.
Their rotation’s depth allowed them to hold Sale as their ace in the hole over the final days. The Braves have saved him for the right time; Fried and Lopez have justified that risk.
It’s simply rare consistency. Every team needs starting pitching. Few have enough to fill out a five-man rotation, much less possess a group with the upside of this one. Each one makes the other better, an osmosis-like effect that’s created the best rotation in recent Braves history, even without its 300-strikeout man in Strider.
“I don’t know if this is the right saying, but (stuff) rolls downhill,” d’Arnaud said. “So that means the guys up top are really strong and keep everybody together when things are hard. So then, it’s not (stuff) rolling downhill, but the good stuff is rolling and just keeps continuing (smiles).
“And for us, (pitching coach Rick Kranitz) and (bullpen coach) Erick (Abreu) have done a tremendous job of keeping them on the right path and steering the ship. Obviously, the law of averages tells you you’re not going to pitch excellent the whole time, so for them to always remind them and just always having each other’s backs, and I think it’s pretty special. So Kranny and Eric have done a tremendous job of making sure they’re consistently getting better every day.”
Nobody in the South is dancing in the streets about this Braves team. If it makes the postseason, it’ll have barely done so. They’ve been ravaged with injuries to All-Stars, ending any great expectations once held during spring training. No one anticipates the Braves playing deep into October.
Yet the starting pitching provides a glimmer of hope. Admit it: It’s crossed your mind, once or twice, that the Braves could win a postseason series behind this bunch. Sale, Fried, Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach and Charlie Morton are the 2024 Braves’ backbone.
“They all believe, and all have so much conviction in every single pitch,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And they all believe in me and Murph (fellow backstop Sean Murphy) with the game plan that we come up with. And they all believe in (catching coach) Sal (Fasano), Kranny and Erick. We’re a unit.
“For them to be out there, be confident, execute and believe in themselves, always have each other’s backs, that’s the biggest thing.”
“Just being around the other starters, seeing what those guys do on their days and whatever they can to help the team win, I feel like that personally inspires me,” Lopez said via team interpreter Franco Garcia. “There’s just a mutual admiration, I think. And when it’s another guy’s day, and you’re out there and they’re pitching, well, it just kind of gives off a really positive energy and a positive vibe, and it’s contagious, right? It makes you want to go out there and have a good outing as well, and try to match their effort and do whatever you can to help the team win.”
The Braves are one win – or a Diamondbacks loss – away from carrying this vaunted pitching into the postseason. They sure would love the chance.
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