Injuries have also ravaged Atlanta’s starters. Mike Soroka, an All-Star in 2019, tore his right Achilles tendon in August 2020, and tore it again in May, nine months into his recovery. Another young starter, Huascar Ynoa, broke his pitching hand when he punched a dugout bench in May. Then he hurt his shoulder in the playoffs.
And like the Astros, the Braves also lost the starter who opened their playoff run. A comebacker broke Charlie Morton’s leg in Game 1 of the World Series, and Atlanta did not exactly have Maddux in reserve. Davidson, who made four starts this season and was staying loose at the team’s Class AAA ballpark, took Morton’s roster spot.
It is important to consider those factors before eulogizing the starting pitcher. Yes, the lack of durability among starters was a theme all season, with only four pitchers in the majors working 200 innings. This has been a trend for a while, but the pandemic-shortened 2020 season accelerated it. Teams were especially cautious of pushing pitchers too far, and many pitchers got hurt, anyway.
The last World Series, pre-Covid, was a showcase for elite starters. That 2019 matchup, between the Astros and the Washington Nationals, included five starters who worked 200 innings that season: Greinke, Verlander and Gerrit Cole for Houston, and Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin for Washington. Strasburg even pitched into the ninth inning of Game 6.
If anyone has a chance to get close to the ninth this time — or at least close to the seventh — it is Max Fried, who will start Game 6 for Atlanta. Fried lost Game 2 but was not hit hard, and he even faced two batters in the sixth inning. After patching together two bullpen games, Manager Brian Snitker should have it easier with Fried on Tuesday.
“He’s ready to go,” Snitker said after Game 5. “We had him in reserve if something happened today. If we got locked up in extra innings or whatever, we were going to run him down there and possibly use him today also. I always feel good when Max pitches. He always gives you a chance to win.”
Fried — who is 40-18 with a 3.34 earned run average in his career — will have an extra day of rest for Game 6. Astros Manager Dusty Baker, meanwhile, seems likely to use his Game 3 starter, Luis Garcia, on short rest. That is because Baker needed Jose Urquidy for an inning on Sunday after starter Framber Valdez fizzled out in the third.