For years the Braves have been credited with having the best starting pitching staff in baseball, and it is probably true. The one constant they have had since the 1991 World Series team is the pitching, starting with Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, and then adding Greg Maddux and now Kevin Millwood in the last couple of years.
But many people believe the Yankees pitching staff has not been given the credit it deserves over the past few seasons, and you can count the Braves pitchers among that group.
“I think the strength of their team is pitching,” Maddux said. “The starting pitching is very good and their bullpen is outstanding too. I see them winning consistently over the years because of their pitching more than anything else.”
Maddux went through the list, pointing out how effective Orlando Hernandez has been over the past two seasons and what a big-game pitcher he is. He pointed to David Cone’s consistency over the years and his reputation as a dominating pitcher when it counts most, and said the same for Andy Pettitte. As for Roger Clemens, he acknowledged this wasn’t his best year, but he didn’t need feel the need to mention his five Cy Young Awards.
“And the thing is, they’re doing it here in Yankee Stadium,” Maddux said raising his eyebrows. “It’s not like this is a pitchers’ park.”
Javy Lopez, the injured Braves catcher, agreed with Maddux that too much emphasis is put on the Braves starters and the Yankee pitchers are left out all too often.
“Of course,” Lopez said. “They deserve the same amount of credit as the Brave pitchers; even more. They’ve shown before with the numbers they put up. You don’t see a lot of players on that [Yankee] lineup hitting over .300. That means they’re pitchers are doing the job. Take a look at Cleveland. They have all those .300 hitters, but they don’t have the pitching.”
When asked if it was a similar case with the Mets and the seven .300 hitters they have, Lopez said they were a different case.
“They have good hitting and good pitching,” he said.
Glavine, who started Game 3 last night at The Stadium, said that it doesn’t matter what kind of numbers those pitchers had during the regular season or what difficulties they went through, because when it comes to the postseason, they will elevate their pitching. Kind of the reverse of Kenny Rogers.
“I don’t care what kind of years they’ve had,” Glavine said. “I’m sure David didn’t have the type of year he’s used to having and I’m sure Roger didn’t either, or Andy for that matter. But all three of them have pitched well in the postseason. Regardless of what they’ve done [during the season], any time those guys go out on the mound they’re capable of pitching a great ballgame.”