Whoda Thunk It?

For the first five months of the season Braves fans everywhere were lamenting the fact that Frank Wren hadn’t been able to trade Derek Lowe in the pre season. The 4.53 ERA Lowe posted through the end of August had the ever decreasing attendances at Turner Field wishing for just one more sighting of Javier Vazquez in a Braves uniform. In just five starts since the calendar flipped to September however something drastic changed with the man formerly known to some as ‘Lowdermort’. On September 3^rd Lowe skipped a start to rest and rehabilitate an elbow that had some unwanted bone fragments floating around in it, that meant Braves Country got one last memory from Japanese import, soon to be Atlanta export, Kenshin Kawakami and everything looked gloomy. Then came the new Derek Lowe who, for the first time in his Atlanta career, earned the huge contract he received two years ago. September 8^th D-Lowe went 6 innings and allowed one run, solid without being spectacular, September 13^th however was. Over eight shutout innings Lowe allowed only 6 hits and struck out a career high 12 Nationals hitters in what became his season defining performance in the middle of his season defining month. In September Lowe pitched 30.2 innings allowing only four earned runs and, most importantly he achieved a 46 ground outs to only 15 fly outs, the kind of ratio that will always ensure success for Derek.

This is now success that the Braves will need him to provide as he goes into the post-season as the teams ace, a position that D-Lowe has earned this past month especially given Tim Hudson’s recent struggles including a 5.35 September ERA. Lowe has been to the post season six times, four with the Boston Red Sox and twice with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Huddy has been four times with the Oakland Athletics and once with the Braves. This means that the Braves starters in games one and two both have extended play-off experience, Lowe is the only one however to have travelled beyond the division series advancing to the league championship series four times. D-Lowe also has the experience of pitching in the World Series having picked up a ring with the 2004 Red Sox. In 21 play-off games (10 starts) Derek has posted a 5-5 record with a 3.33 ERA, Hudson has pitched in 9 postseason games (8 starts) and gone 1-3 with a 3.97 ERA that includes going 0-1 with a 5.27 earned run average in 2 starts for the Braves back in 2005. It seemed a pretty obvious choice for Bobby to go with D-Lowe in game one especially against Lincecum to try and put the Braves up in the series and then hope Huddy returns to his early season brilliance in game two. The wild card (pun intended) is Tommy Hanson who will pitch game three at Turner Field, Tommy has been great down the stretch posting a 2.04 ERA in September and not allowing a run over five innings against the Phillies on Saturday. The Braves have much more post season experience in their rotation and one that is coming into the series hot, at this stage of the year you don’t need to be good you just have to win; Lowe and Hudson have done that an awful lot over the years.