ATLANTA – Andy Ashby doesn’t have a Cy Young Award like John Smoltz, or Smoltz’ sterling postseason record; but Ashby has given the back end of Atlanta’s rotation a much-needed boost and given the Braves yet another veteran pitcher who knows how to beat the Mets. And when they play the second game of this huge three-game set tonight at 7:40 p.m., he’ll try to do just that.
The Braves lost Smoltz for the year with an elbow injury before the season even started. And the team built on starting pitching found the back end of their rotation unusually shaky; that is, until they traded struggling fifth starter Bruce Chen to Philadelphia on July 12 for Ashby, a proven workhorse. And the 33-year-old veteran has indeed done good work for them.
He left the Phillies with a 4-7 record and a fat 5.59 ERA; but since coming to Atlanta he’s 6-5 with a 4.38 ERA – including arguably his best game of the year, which came against the Mets. On July 23 at Turner Field, he threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over the Amazin’s. He walked just two and fanned seven in the kind of dominant effort he’d love to repeat tonight.
“They have a good lineup, or else they wouldn’t be here,” Ashby said of the Mets. “I’m trying to do too much. That’s what got me in trouble (before). I’m concentrating on not being too fine. I have to see my pitches and be aggressive, and not try to be so perfect. Even if I miss by an inch or two, I’d still have some stuff on it, instead of being so flat in the zone.”
Ashby has not only been more aggressive, but he’s tinkered with his mechanics. He’d taken to throwing from a lower angle with the Phillies, but Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone raised it back to how Ashby had thrown when he gave up just three runs in two starts vs. Atlanta in the ’98 NLCS; and the results show.
“It ain’t a problem; he’s coachable. I just told him I remember how you pitched when you beat us in San Diego in pressure situations, and that’s not how you’ve been pitching. That’s how we want you to pitch. That got the message across,” Mazzone said. “(Plus) guys like it here. They like who they play for (Bobby Cox). They play for a pitcher’s manager, and it shows in the results.”
And GM John Schuerholz said: “He’s been very valuable. Once we lost John Smoltz, we needed someone to come in who was solid. And he’s a guy who’s taken the ball and been very valuable for us.”
