ATLANTA — The Braves have worked 37 postseason games over the past four autumns. Mike Soroka, their best pitching prospect of this century, started one. He was masterful in Game 3 of the 2019 NLDS, holding the Cardinals to one run on two hits on a day the venerable Adam Wainwright was just as good. The Braves scored three in the ninth to win.
Since 2019, Soroka has logged 13 2/3 big league innings. He has torn the same Achilles tendon twice. Since 2019, the Braves have won six of seven playoff series and, using nine different starting pitchers, gone 19-9 in postseason games. Yours truly has long regarded Soroka as the key player on the Braves' loaded roster. I'm not sure that still applies.
Soroka is 24, which means — glass half-full — he could have many splendid years in him. In his one full major league season, he made the All-Star team, finished sixth in Cy Young voting and second to the Mets' Pete Alonso as the National League's top rookie. That was in 2019. Three starts into the delayed-by-COVID 2020 season, Soroka tore his Achilles.
