Tyler Mahle arrived in Atlanta with questions attached. A few months later, the Braves are handing him the kind of assignment that can define a postseason run.
Mahle will start Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Dodgers on Wednesday at Truist Park, with Atlanta facing a must-win situation in the best-of-five series. The Braves trail 2-1, and Mahle now gets the ball in the game that could keep them alive.
“He's been very valuable for us ever since he came over this year,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. “I think he'll be up for the moment.”
That wasn’t the reaction around the league when Atlanta got Mahle before the Trade Deadline. At the time, plenty of people wondered whether the Braves had actually added a starter built for October. On Wednesday, he gets the chance to answer that himself.
“All of those other starts in September against the Phillies, they were big games,” Mahle said. “I'm sure it's going to feel very similar to that.”
The right-hander has already outperformed the expectations that followed him into Atlanta. In nine regular-season starts for the Braves, Mahle posted a 1.99 ERA, then backed it up by allowing one run over seven innings against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series.
That production has compared favorably with another Deadline headliner. Tarik Skubal turned in a 2.61 ERA in 10 regular-season starts for the Dodgers and then held the Braves to one run over six innings in the first game of this NLDS.
“Mahle has been unbelievable,” manager Walt Weiss said. “We could never have anticipated he would be this good. But he has been, and it's changed our rotation, really.”
The path to this point wasn’t exactly smooth. Mahle put up a 5.13 ERA in 18 starts for the Giants before Atlanta acquired him on Aug.
- The Braves still saw enough to believe there was more there, especially after he returned from a hamstring strain and posted a 3.73 ERA in seven starts.
Atlanta also believed a few small changes could unlock something better. Mahle had already started adjusting his pitch mix after coming back from the injured list in June, cutting back on his cutter while leaning more heavily on his splitter.
Since then, the results have been hard to ignore. Mahle has been in the best stretch of his career, including two September starts against the Phillies in which he allowed one earned run over 13 innings. He then carried that success into the postseason in his first playoff outing.
Now comes the biggest test yet. For a pitcher who was once questioned as a Deadline fit, Wednesday offers a far louder stage - and a very real chance to become the Braves’ October hero.
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Braves Had To Change Their NLDS Plan Around Ronald Acua Jr
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Sean Murphy was also scratched before first pitch, with Lane Thomas sliding into right field and Atlanta planning to use Murphy as a pinch hitter instead. Behind the plate, Drake Baldwin was set to catch Chris Sale, another sign that the Braves were piecing together the game around availability as much as matchup, with every late adjustment carrying a little more weight in October. [Read more 🡒]