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True ace: Archer answers call and then some

Pretty nice work for nine innings.

Archer's line read like a pitcher's dream: No runs on one hit and a walk with 11 strikeouts, and all on just 98 pitches. He became the fifth pitcher in the Wild Card era to strike out 11 or more on fewer than 100 pitches during a nine-inning complete game.

"I'm human," Archer said. "So I thought about the fact that our bullpen needed to breathe a little bit. It was either get 130 pitches and go six or seven or go eight or nine and give everybody a complete blow.