Ian Anderson becoming a postseason legend for the Atlanta Braves

Ian Anderson’s third straight scoreless start puts him in some elite company

There have been many runs of dominant pitching performances in Major League postseason history, but the best one is not in dispute: in 1905, New York Giants great Christy Mathewson threw three complete game shutouts in a span of five days to win the World Series.

Atlanta Braves right-hander Ian Anderson doesn’t quite have the same stature as the Hall of Famer. He made his MLB debut just seven weeks ago and has only six regular-season starts to his credit. But so far in 2020, he’s come the closest to matching what Mathewson did 115 years ago. Anderson shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers over four innings in Game 2 of the NLCS on Tuesday, extending his run of scoreless innings this postseason to 15.2.

Anderson joins Mathewson as the only pitchers to begin their postseason career with three straight starts of at least four scoreless innings. He shut out the Reds for six innings in Game 2 of the Wild Card round, then held the Marlins scoreless for 5.2 innings in the second game of the NLDS. He’s given up just six hits over his three starts; opponents are batting .113 against him. He walked five Dodgers but surrendered only one hit, a two-out single to center by Justin Turner in the bottom of the third inning.

The Dodgers forced Anderson to throw 28 pitches in the first inning, getting two runners on before Will Smith hit a liner to third base that Austin Riley was able to stop. Riley’s throw to first was wide, but Freddie Freeman managed to just keep his foot on the bag to retire Smith and get out of the inning unscathed. In the third, the Dodgers loaded the bases before Smith again hit a groundout to Riley to end the inning.

Braves pitchers have shut down opposing lineups all postseason. They’ve given up no more than one run in five of their six games, the first team to do that since 1981. Teams have scored just one run off them over the last 32 innings dating back to the NLDS against the Marlins.

Already with a 1-0 series lead following a 5-1 victory in Game 1 on Monday, the Braves took the lead in Game 2 with Freeman’s two-run home run off Tony Gonsolin—starting in place of Clayton Kershaw, who was scratched before the game with back spasms—in the fourth inning. The Braves had added four more runs in the fifth to lead the Dodgers 6-0 at Globe Life Field in Arlington.