It isn’t as easy as Ian Anderson has made it look.
The rookie pitcher started six games for the Braves during the regular season and posted a 1.95 ERA. He has been even better in the postseason, with a 0.00 ERA through two starts.
Anderson will be back on the mound Tuesday night, starting Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“To have six starts in the regular season and be in this position now, it’s happened fast,” he said Monday. “I think the way that we were prepared in the minor leagues in years past has all culminated to this point.”
Young pitchers, even ultra-promising ones, typically struggle when they first arrive in the big leagues. Consider these two Hall of Famers: Tom Glavine had a 5.54 ERA in his first nine starts in 1987 and John Smoltz a 5.48 ERA in his first 12 starts in 1988.
But, so far at least, Anderson has avoided such struggles since being promoted to the big leagues Aug. 25 and being immediately placed in the starting rotation of a first-place team.
The Braves likely will need more of the same from him in NLCS Game 2, with left-hander Clayton Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, starting for the Dodgers.
“It’s going to be special,” Anderson said of opposing Kershaw. “Growing up watching him (on TV), he was the guy who got it done year-in and year-out and put up some impressive seasons. That was always the guy you kind of strived to be. Me being right-handed, I knew I’d never get there, but he’s impressive. I’m looking forward to kind of going toe-to-toe with him.”
Anderson also is looking forward to having a limited number of fans in attendance. After playing the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs in front of empty stands, Major League Baseball is allowing up to 11,500 fans at the NLCS games. Among those in attendance at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, watching Anderson pitch in a big-league game for the first time, will be his parents and twin brother.
“That’s the one thing I’ve been asking everyone: What’s it like with fans in the stands and hearing the crowd roar?” Anderson said. “We’ll get a little taste of it (in this series).”
Anderson, 22, has gotten national attention as a breakout star of the first two rounds of the playoffs. He has drawn raves for his ability to mix the power of his fastball with the deception of his changeup, a pitch he began throwing after the Braves drafted him No. 3 overall out of an upstate New York high school in 2016.
He has pitched 11-2/3 shutout innings in this postseason. He has allowed five hits (none against the changeup) and issued three walks. He has 17 strikeouts, representing about 40% of the 43 batters he has faced.
Those are pretty amazing numbers, especially for a rookie who pitched only five games at Triple-A (all late in the 2019 season) and spent the first half of this shortened season at the Braves' alternate training site.
“We expected him to impact us at some point in 2020. We didn’t know when,” Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said.
Anthopoulos recalled watching Anderson pitch in a game at Triple-A Gwinnett soon after he was promoted from Double-A Mississippi in August 2019. The GM was so impressed with what he saw that he reached out during the game to Braves manager Brian Snitker.
“I may have sent Snit a text after three-four innings,” Anthopoulos said. "I remember saying, ‘This is probably our next guy up.’
“Then, I think in the fourth or fifth (inning), he started getting hit around and so on. But he flashed (his ability) for you for three-four innings. He looked really good, and you knew it was in there.”
Now, it’s on display under the bright lights of MLB’s postseason.
“I think as each game goes on and each series goes on," Anderson said, “you get a little bit more excited just to get back out there.”
