At pitching, the Braves aren’t exactly pikers. In an organization that once featured a rotation with John Smoltz, soon to be a Hall of Famer, as the No. 4 starter, it takes a heapin’ helpin’ of hurlin’ to hold our eye. But for all the stellar work done by Braves pitchers over the past quarter-century, there has never been an April like this.
As of Friday morning, the Braves’ top four starters ranked first, second, eighth and ninth among National Leaguers in ERA. Of the Braves’ first 22 games, 18 yielded quality starts — defined as six or more innings with three or fewer earned runs — and that loose description doesn’t begin to measure the dominance.
Aaron Harang, who has an ERA of 0.85, hasn’t been touched for even two earned runs in any of his five starts. Ervin Santana (1.95 ERA) has yielded more than one run once in four starts. Julio Teheran (1.80) hasn’t yielded more than two in any of his five. Alex Wood (1.54) has yielded a total of six earned runs in five starts.
Those four have produced 17 quality starts in 19 tries, one exception coming April 12 when Wood was lifted after five innings against Washington when holding a 5-1 lead, the second arriving Friday when Cincinnati scored four runs in the sixth and seventh innings against Santana. Not until Friday, the season’s 22nd game, did a Braves’ starter surrender more than three earned runs.
Over the first 21 games, the starters’ ERA was a best-in-baseball 1.50. According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, the Braves’ previous best ERA over the first 21 games — dating to 1991, the worst-to-first year — was 2.52 in 1997, when the starting five was Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Denny Neagle and Terrell Wade (who would be supplanted by Kevin Millwood).
We pause to make disbelieving noises: This rotation was supposed to have been gutted by the losses, on consecutive spring days, of Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy to Tommy John surgery. With Gavin Floyd, imported over the winter as a free agent, himself coming off Tommy John surgery and with Mike Minor about to open the season on the disabled list, who knew if the Braves could even count to five?
But Santana, fortuitously still available, was signed March 12, and Harang, just cut by Cleveland, was acquired March 24, and away they somehow went. And for the biggest part of that “somehow,” we turn to pitching coach Roger McDowell, who succeeded Leo Mazzone in 2006 and now stands unchallenged as the best in the business.
The Braves ranked among the top five in baseball in ERA from 2009 through 2012, and last year they led the majors. Doggone if aren’t leading again. So what’s the McDowell Method?
Roger’s first rule would seem to be that he doesn’t care to talk about Roger. He declined an interview request before Friday’s game by saying he needed to be elsewhere. Other Braves, however, were more willing to chat.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez: “The plans are simple. He doesn’t overcomplicate things. He has a great feel when talking to different personalities.”
Beachy: “He gets everyone on the same page, even though we’re different personalities with different repertoires.”
Backup catcher Gerald Laird: “He’s been there and done that. (McDowell was a relief pitcher of note.) He doesn’t really overwhelm you with information.”
Harang: “I’ve been on other teams where they hand you this huge scouting report, and you can see a young guy go out there who doesn’t have a clue. You can see his wheels just spinning.”
Laird: “He gives you places to go with your pitches.”
Harang: “He wants you to trust what you have.”
Fifth starter David Hale: “He showed me a whole new pitch — my sinker — last year. That’s the main reason I’m here.”
Gonzalez: “He can break down opposing hitters as good as anyone in baseball. He knows their weaknesses and how to exploit them.”
Harang: “He watches a lot of video (on opposing hitters) and breaks it down to situations and counts, and he meets with the catchers so they have a good idea.”
Gonzalez: “I sit in on the meetings and don’t do anything. I trust him so much. I have no input.”
Beachy: “He doesn’t get enough credit for our success — he doesn’t want any credit — but that’s where it belongs.”
That said, the pitchers must make the pitches. Time and again, they have. Excellence can be infectious.
Harang: “We do feed off one another. All the starters here want one another to do better.”
Hale: “You think, ‘He only gave up two runs; I’ll try just to give up one.’ But when a guy gives up no runs, you think, ‘Now what am I supposed to do?’”
