While the Braves’ choice to go with Freddy Garcia over Paul Maholm as the Game 4 starter might have been fairly easy to predict, the Braves’ final bullpen spot was not.
The club elected to put rookie David Hale on the postseason roster as a long man in the bullpen and keep 37-year-old veteran left-hander Scott Downs off. That was a move that took both Downs and Hale by surprise.
“Shocked,” Downs said. “Caught off guard. Basically it sounds like it came down to a two-week audition. The last two weeks of September, I gave up a couple hits to lefties late, so they felt having just two lefties in the pen is the right way to go.”
Alex Wood and Luis Avilan are the two lefties the Braves will use in the bullpen. Downs, Maholm and right-hander Anthony Varvaro will head to instructional league in Orlando to stay in shape in case they are needed because of an injury or if the Braves advance to the NLCS.
Downs said he feels great physically, saying “This is probably the best my arm has felt in September in quite a long time,” so that wasn’t the issue.
The Braves acquired Downs from Anaheim at the trade deadline to give the bullpen a veteran to retire left-handers in the absence of Jonny Venters and Eric O’Flaherty.
“That’s what’s baffling,” Down said. “That’s what’s confusing. I was traded to come here to help, to make a push to get into the postseason and pitch in the postseason and to find out there’s a chance I might not, that’s the frustrating part.”
Downs gave up 13 hits to the 21 batters he faced in September, including nine to the 13 left-handers, though he contends only a couple were hard-hit.
“But it is what it is,” Downs said. “I’m just going to go out, continue to do what I need to do to let them know that I want to pitch.”
Hale got the nod after making two spot starts in a September call-up – his first two starts in the big leagues – allowing only one earned run in 11 innings.
“We kept Hale because we felt like he’s a guy that could give us some innings late in the game if you get into one of those crazy 12, 13-inning games,” Gonzalez said. “He’s the one that has stretched out enough that he can give you a long man at the end of the game.”
The last time Hale attended a postseason game, he was there as a Braves fan, at age 5, with his father at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium for the 1992 World Series. He doesn’t remember much other than it was cold, though he still has the ticket framed in a case in his home in Marietta.
“I was completely surprised,” said Hale, who was still trying to process the decision two hours after being told on Wednesday. “If you told me this was going to happen a month ago, I would have laughed in your face. So, yes this is my wildest dream.”
