After a couple of not-too-meaningful losses in New York, the Braves are off to Philadelphia to wrap up the regular season. Tonight will be Mike Foltynewicz’ last opportunity for an in-game tune-up before the playoffs, and he will take the mound against the same team that he defeated in his last start to help the Braves clinch their first playoff spot in five years.
Listing the stellar stats that Foltynewicz has accrued to date might be old hat at this point, but it’s still fun: 70 ERA-, 86 FIP-, 95 xFIP-. There’s some open debate regarding the extent to which his peripherals outperformance is “real” — you can say the defense helps the ERA-FIP gap and the fact that he throws super-hard lowers his HR/FB and leads to the FIP-xFIP gap, but that seems like an exploration that can be done in the offseason.