Baseball-'Gut' call to pull Anderson paid off for Braves in World Series Game 3

Vaycaychella

30/10/2021 07:02

Oct 30 (Reuters) - A "gut" decision to pull starting pitcher
Ian Anderson after five no-hit innings paid off, Atlanta Braves
manager Brian Snitker said, after his team's dominant 2-0 win
over the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the World Series on Friday.
    The 23-year-old had four strikeouts through the first five
innings to the delight of the Atlanta crowd, as it hosted a
World Series game for the first time in more than two decades
and faced the tantalizing prospect of a potential no-hitter.
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    Anderson had given his manager little cause for complaint,
putting up the second-longest no-hit bid by a rookie in a World
Series game, but Snitker nonetheless turned to the bullpen to
start the sixth inning, a decision he later credited to his
intuition.
    "He'd thrown a lot of pitches in the top half of that
lineup," Snitker said in a post-game press conference. "I
thought the fourth inning he really had to work to get through
that. He had a really good fifth inning.
    "And I told him, because he was like, 'Are you sure? Are you
sure?' But I was just like, 'Ian, I'm going with my gut right
here.'"
    Atlanta fell short of a no-hitter, as the Astros were held
to two hits, but the gut call paid off and the Braves ended the
evening with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.
    "You want the chance to compete, especially on the biggest
stage like this is," said Anderson. "I knew he wasn't going to
budge - it's hard to ... you can't blame him for going to those
guys. Those guys time in and time out get it done. 
    "And you know they did it again tonight." 
    Game Four of the World Series is set for Saturday in
Atlanta.

 (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Stephen
Coates)
 ((Amy.Tennery@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6343;))