ATLANTA — Weary is the pitching coach who must contend with the depth and power of the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup. Slogging through rush hour traffic, babysitting a colicky infant and enduring dental surgery come to mind, at least if you saw the face of Atlanta Braves pitching coach Chuck Hernandez after four games of trying to stop them. Nineteen pitching changes and 624 pitches were not enough.
“You have to be in the strike zone,” Hernandez said, “because they will not go outside of it. They make you work. They’re like those old school Yankees and Red Sox teams that just wear you out.