Harang an unlikely leader of MLB’s top rotation so far

NEW YORK – When the Braves signed Aaron Harang on March 24, a day after he was released by the Indians, the idea was to have him help keep the rotation together for a few weeks and be a veteran influence until some other starters got healthy.

No one, including Harang, had notions of him being the bell cow of the most dominant starting rotation in baseball for the first three weeks of the season. But it’s not overstating it to suggest that he and the Braves’ reconfigured-by-necessity rotation have been that through the first tenth of the season.

Harang pitched seven hitless innings in a three-pitcher one-hit shutout Friday against the Mets, which lowered the Braves’ majors-leading overall ERA to 2.28. This despite an uncharacteristically bloated 4.50 bullpen ERA, which was tied for 20th in the majors before Saturday.

Led by Harang’s majors-leading 0.70 ERA, Braves starters had a ridiculously low 1.47 ERA with only 17 earned runs allowed through 16 games — nearly a full run ahead of the second-ranked St. Louis starters’ 2.45 ERA.

This from a rotation that began the season with Harang and three kids – rookie David Hale, second-year-lefty Alex Wood, and 23-year-old budding ace Julio Teheran.

The Braves’ other spring-training signee, Ervin Santana, made his debut April 9 and had a microscopic 0.64 ERA entering his third start Friday against the Mets. But no one is too surprised by what the former All-Star Santana has done. The Braves signed him to be an ace, two days after losing planned opening-day starter Kris Medlen and top-three starter Brandon Beachy to elbow injuries on back-to-back days March 9-10.

Harang, on the other hand, was signed as an upgrade over the released Freddy Garcia, who’d been a fifth-starter hopeful. So far, he’s been an upgrade on Garcia the way Citi Field was an upgrade over Shea Stadium. Massive.

“Our whole starting staff has been incredible, especially what he’s doing,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “He came over here at the very end of spring training and he’s just been lights-out. If he can keep doing that it’ll be pretty special. But hopefully we can get some runs for him.”

Third baseman Chris Johnson was asked what Harang had meant to the first-place Braves.

“A lot,” Johnson said. “After what happened in spring training, and the way we kind of felt about it – there were a lot of guys in here who were pretty down about losing (Medlen and Beachy), and to have him step up like this has been amazing. We have confidence in everybody we have here, but what he’s doing right now… He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. It’s really fun to watch.”

The Braves scored one run for Harang (3-1) when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his debut at Milwaukee, a 1-0 win. They scored no runs while he was in the game in his second start, and he took the loss in that one despite limiting the Mets to two hits and one run with nine strikeouts in six innings.

The Braves had a 1-0 lead Friday when Harang left the game after seven no-hit innings; he was replaced because he’d thrown 121 pitches including 23 in the seventh inning. They scored five runs after he left.

Gonzalez told Harang he wanted to make sure he was healthy for 25-27 more starts, an indication of how the outlook for Harang has changed. If he stays healthy and keeps pitching anywhere near his current level, it would be a surprise if he got bumped from the rotation — certainly not when Mike Minor comes off the disabled list next week, but probably not when Gavin Floyd is ready to come off the DL, which figures to be no sooner than early May.

Minor was set to make his last rehab start Saturday night for Triple-A Gwinnett, after getting rained out Friday.

The Elias Sports Bureau said Harang is just the third pitcher since 1900 to be removed from more than one start with a no-hitter intact after at least six innings. Harang was pulled from a July 2011 start for the Padres after six no-hit innings because he was coming off an injury-rehab stint and manager Bud Black didn’t want to push him too far.

Harang chatted briefly with Gonzalez to ask to keep pitching Friday, but the manager had made up his mind.

“I said, I’m good, I’ve got this,” Harang said. “Just have somebody up and ready to go. And he’s like – he’s biting his lip – he’s like, ‘Dude, I hate doing this.’ But the fact that I went through it a couple of years ago in San Diego, I know how it works. You see guys get hurt and they’re just not the same afterward because they threw a ton of pitches. So you’ve got to commend him for being able to put his foot down and say, I don’t want to be responsible for you getting hurt when I have a say in it right now.”