Starting pitching tends to get a lot of emphasis in the postseason, deservedly so. One starter might get 20% of a team's starts in the regular season, but in a five-game series, a team's ace can pitch twice, doubling his impact.
A team's most important pitcher might not necessarily be its best pitcher. With that said, here are the most important starting pitchers for each team in the division series:
St. Louis Cardinals: Jack Flaherty
In a Cardinals-Braves series full of quality starters, Flaherty is the only true ace on either squad. Even after pitching the final game of the season to give St. Louis the division title, Flaherty is lined up to make two starts. Flaherty's 4.1 fWAR in the second half topped the National League and sat behind only Justin Verlander in all of baseball. In each of his last 12 starts, he's gone at least seven innings and given up one or no runs. When he takes the mound in the second game of the series, he'll be pitching to either give the Cardinals a commanding 2-0 lead or fighting to prevent the Cardinals from going down 2-0. If that's not the most important game of the series, it will be Game 5, when Flaherty is scheduled to pitch again.
