Braves Ian Anderson Has Best Triple-A Start Yet

It feels like it's only a matter of time before the Atlanta Braves activate Ian Anderson after another sparkling outing.

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Ian Anderson had his best start so far with the Gwinnett Stripers. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta Braves starter Ian Anderson took the mound for the Gwinnett Stripers on Thursday night and had his best outing of 2024 to date. Anderson pitched six shutout innings, giving up just three hits and two walks while striking out seven. 

What a night from Ian Anderson:

6.0 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 2 BB | 7 K pic.twitter.com/bgLteu6FLq

— Gwinnett Stripers (@GoStripers) August 16, 2024

It was his second straight start of pitching at least six innings. Coincidently, before these two starts, he hadn’t pitched six innings in a game since his last start with the Braves on Aug. 13, 2022. Thursday night’s outing was his first scoreless start in Triple-A as well. 

Anderson is doing what he can to make his case to the big-league club that he’s ready to come back. If you look at his Triple-A stats as a whole, you won’t get that idea, so you have to go game by game. 

In five Triple-A starts, Anderson has a 4.21 ERA across 25 1/3 innings. But with each start, he’s allowed fewer runs while pitching deeper into games. Each start has seen his ERA drop by a run or more. 

So the most recent starts are a better reflection of who he is as a pitcher. Expanded rosters - 26 to 28 spots - are coming in two weeks. Should Anderson really find his stride over another start or two, he could nab one of those spots without sacrificing another player.

He’s one of the few pitchers in the organization who have a serious track record of postseason success. In eight postseason starts, Anderson has a 1.26 ERA over 35 2/3 innings pitched. The Braves may not have won a World Series without his efforts.  

So, the team isn’t just throwing something at the wall to see what sticks by giving him the ball. Far from it. We still have to find out how he’ll do once he actually called up. It’s a major jump from Triple-A to MLB, and he did get sent back to the minors initially for a reason. But he’s slowly earning his way back, and the timing couldn’t be better.