NEW YORK — No other major-league pitcher has as many starts on six or more days’ rest this season as the Atlanta Braves’ Reynaldo López, who has seven. But teammate Chris Sale is right behind him after making his sixth such start Friday night against the New York Yankees.
The Braves’ extra-rest strategy, specifically designed to help those pitchers stay healthy and fresh, has worked splendidly.
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López leads MLB qualifiers with a 1.57 ERA in 13 starts, after spending the past two seasons as a reliever, and Sale is 10-2 with a 2.91 ERA, tied for the MLB wins lead, after allowing just one run and one hit in five innings of an 8-1 series-opening win at Yankee Stadium.
“You hand me the ball, I’m going to go throw,” said Sale, 35, a 14-year veteran who’s been a workhorse throughout his career when healthy. “That’s the schedule they’ve laid out for us so far, so you know, hey, whatever they need from me, I’m here for it.”
Sale had three walks and eight strikeouts Friday, and the Yankees’ slugging trio of Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-6 with five strikeouts against him.
“When you’ve got a left-hander throwing 98 miles an hour with some run like that, it’s a tough AB, especially when he’s locating on both sides of the plate,” Braves center fielder Jarred Kelenic said.
For the Braves, Friday’s win was highlighted by first-inning homers from Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley and Matt Olson’s two-run homer in the fourth, all off starter Carlos Rodón. Braves newcomer Ramón Laureano had three doubles. And Sale might’ve held the Yankees scoreless and hitless for five if not for a second-inning fly ball that left fielder Adam Duvall misplayed into a triple.
This is the longest that Sale has stayed healthy in a season since 2019. And with 86 2/3 innings pitched, he should surpass before the All-Star break his 102 2/3 innings last season, which was easily his highest total since 2019.
The Braves have won four in a row and seven of eight games following a five-game skid that was their longest since September 2017. Starting pitching carried them when the offense was moribund, but the pitching and hitting are syncing up now and the Braves are starting to look like a pennant contender again.
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But how long can the Braves give more rest to their starting pitchers than any other MLB contender? And how long should they do it, since they will probably need to lean on those key starters on regular (four days’) rest down the stretch of a playoff race and in the postseason?
“I felt like, for me personally the past few years, we got to a spot in August or September and you have some guys go down (get hurt), and they need other guys to throw” on regular rest, said 4o-year-old Charlie Morton, the Braves’ fourth-best starter behind López, Sale and Max Fried. “Shoot, we’ve had it the past couple of years where they’re skipping (starters) on off days; it’s like, we need you to go.”
He meant the Braves skipped a fifth starter on an off day and had one or more of their top starters go on regular rest during important stretches in recent seasons.
“And it’s like, it’s August or September, you want the ball because you’re pitching in bigger games,” Morton said. “At the same time, that’s when you’re feeling it the most, when you need (rest) the most. So you kind of have to regulate yourself in June, July. But they (team officials) are basically doing that for us right now. So hopefully it pays off.”
Morton summarized his thoughts on the situation: “Honestly, I’m not sure. Because it’s like, especially down the stretch if it’s tight, if there’s a division or wild-card race, they’re going to want their guys to throw (on regular rest), and you start stepping on it.”
And it’s not as if a pitcher can bank rest now to use later in the season.
“It’s like you get guys on a (one per) week schedule, and then come August or September you’re saying, ‘We need you to pitch on normal rest’ when it’s the dog days, and now we need you to be (ready on regular rest),” Morton said. “I mean, I don’t know how long they’re going to do what they’re doing. We haven’t discussed it. All I’m saying is, it’s nice to have extra days if that’s the schedule that you’re going to be on. But you have to be conditioned to pitch on normal rest, and the only way to do that is to pitch on normal rest. Down the stretch, playoffs or whatever, you might even be pitching on short rest.”
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The Braves know they first need to get to those important games and do it with key starting pitchers healthy. That’s particularly important given Sale’s litany of injuries in recent seasons and López’s low innings totals while being used strictly as a reliever for the past two seasons and both roles in 2021.
Rather than put a starter on the injured list for a rest or cap anyone’s innings, this is how the Braves are attempting to keep starters healthy.
“We have no plans to shut anybody down,” said Alex Anthopoulos, general manager and president of baseball operations. “And barring any health issues, guys are going to make their starts. Whether that’s 25, 30, 32 starts, they’re going to make their starts.”
In each of the past two seasons, at least two Braves starters were sick or injured down the stretch and into the postseason, a big part of NLDS losses to the Philadelphia Phillies in consecutive years.
This year, the Braves have been using a six-man rotation recently to provide extra rest that rainouts and off days in the schedule accounted for earlier. But aside from the past two impressive starts by rookie Spencer Schwellenbach, starts by an assortment of young pitchers who’ve filled the fifth and sixth spots have been shaky.
That could change after the All-Star break with the expected return of Ian Anderson, who will have missed 1 1/2 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s pitching in games with the Florida Complex League rookie team but could begin a minor-league rehab assignment next week. There’s also the possibility of a trade for a back-of-the-rotation innings eater.
While the fifth and sixth starters have mostly struggled, the results from the top three have been terrific, with Fried entering Sunday’s series finale with a 3.11 ERA and a 2.16 mark in his past 12 starts.
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“I don’t like extra rest,” said Fried, who has a 2.57 ERA in two starts on four days’ rest, a 1.53 ERA in eight starts on five days’ rest, and an 8.47 ERA in four starts on six days’ rest. “I’m a guy that needs to go out there and pitch as much as possible. We’ve obviously had a lot of different schedule changes, rainouts and days off and that kind of stuff. So you’ve just got to do the best you can with it.”
Friday was Sale’s sixth start on at least six days of rest, and he’s 5-0 with a 2.02 ERA in those games. He’s 4-2 with a 3.72 ERA on five days of rest, and he won his only start on regular rest when he pitched five innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts May 1 at the Seattle Mariners.
López has a 1.05 ERA in his seven starts on six or more days of rest, compared to a 2.00 ERA in five starts on five days of rest and a 3.86 ERA in his only start on regular rest, which was his briefest start with his fewest strikeouts: 4 2/3 innings with three Ks on May 25 at the Pittsburgh Pirates.
For context, the Kansas City Royals’ Seth Lugo, who’s 10-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 16 starts, has just one start on six days’ rest and half of his starts on four days’ rest. The Phillies’ Ranger Suárez, who is 10-1 with a 1.75 ERA, has made six starts on four days’ rest and only three on six days’ rest.
“I want to express my gratitude for the way the organization has been handling those extra days of rest,” López said through an interpreter. “I’ve really appreciated the approach that we’ve taken into considering the extra days’ rest and how helpful that’s been. I imagine the day will come when I eventually hit the regular rotation where I start pitching every five days. But again, I think it’s been very beneficial, and I’m very appreciative that they put so much attention and focus on trying to get that extra rest for me.”
Morton has pitched significantly better with additional rest this season, albeit in a small sample: He lasted three innings and gave up three earned runs in one start on regular rest, and he has a 5.26 ERA in seven starts on five days of rest and a stingy 1.72 ERA in five starts on six days of rest or more.
“Obviously, time will tell,” Fried said, agreeing with Morton and López that the schedule seems likely to change. “I have to imagine that over the next couple of months, we’re going to have a lot of 14, 17 games in a row without an off day, so we’re going to have to go on regular rest. So I think it was a little bit of that cushion early on where you had the off days to be able to get that extra rest.”
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He added: “But I think we’re in a good position now where we have this little gantlet where we can get through it with a little more regular-rest starts. It’s just pacing yourselves out but also staying sharp so that when the end of the season comes, you’ve got to be ready.”
(Photo of Chris Sale: Luke Hales / Getty Images)