Knocking out the ace begins when a pitcher loses the outs he expects to get. During Game 2 of the 2023 ALCS, Framber Valdez barely had time to establish himself. Marcus Semien singled on his first pitch. Corey Seager singled on the next.
Houston’s left-hander still had a chance to interrupt the inning. Robbie Grossman tapped a grounder toward the mound, giving Valdez a ball he could handle himself. Instead, he bobbled it, then threw wildly toward first. The Associated Press described him standing with his hands on his knees, shaking his head.
Texas kept hitting. Valdez’s afternoon ended after eight outs.
The errors deepened the trouble, but they did not create every problem Houston faced. Rangers hitters attacked the pitch Valdez trusted most. Philadelphia found a different opening against Spencer Strider by refusing to let his fastball finish a plate appearance. Los Angeles brought Shohei Ohtani back with runners aboard.
Those attacks shared a purpose: make the next hitter too dangerous for the starter to face.
Texas attacked the pitch Houston trusted
Valdez’s sinker should have helped him control the first inning. Texas turned it into the center of the trouble.
According to the league’s game report, four of the Rangers’ first five singles came against his sinker. Knocking out the ace meant damaging his primary weapon, without waiting for a high pitch count or an obvious drop in velocity.
That approach required more than aggression. A hitter who attacks every sinker can spend an afternoon rolling grounders toward the shortstop. Texas’s opening suggests a more selective assignment: recognize the version of the pitch worth swinging at, then commit.
After Valdez’s errors, Adolis García and Mitch Garver supplied run-scoring singles. Nathaniel Lowe added another before the inning ended. Houston trailed by four, and its starter had already faced the entire order.
Jonah Heim’s third-inning homer extended the damage. Valdez finished with five runs allowed across 2⅔ innings, four earned, according to the Associated Press account. The official scoring charged him with only one unearned run.
That distinction keeps the defensive mistake from overshadowing the hitting. Texas did not merely accept a gift and watch Houston unravel. Its hitters kept producing after the botched play.
A 5–4 victory also showed why those early swings mattered. The Astros nearly recovered, despite losing their starter in the third.
Knocking out the ace had given Texas a lead worth protecting. Finishing the game required its own pitchers to defend it.
Stott made Strider find another answer
Philadelphia’s 2022 postseason supplied a louder image: Rhys Hoskins launching a homer, raising his arms, then driving his bat into the ground. Bryson Stott helped make that celebration possible.
In the third inning of Game 3 of the NLDS, Spencer Strider attacked the rookie shortstop with eight consecutive fastballs. Phillies Nation’s pitch-by-pitch account records four straight fouls with two strikes. Strider tested the outside corner, came inside, then returned outside.
Stott kept finding enough of the ball. That resistance forced Strider to choose again. His ninth pitch, a slider, became an RBI double into right field.
Knocking out the ace sometimes starts with denying him the finish he expects. Stott could not drive every fastball, but he prevented those pitches from ending his turn. When Strider changed weapons, the hitter handled the new one.
Hoskins turned the opening into three runs
The double changed Atlanta’s choices. An intentional walk to Kyle Schwarber brought Hoskins to the plate with two runners aboard.
Strider threw a first-pitch fastball at 93.8 mph. Hoskins sent it over the left-field wall for three runs. Reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution documented the velocity and Strider’s acknowledgment that he missed down the middle.
The pitch offered a striking contrast with the heat Strider had shown earlier. His preparation mattered, too. This October 14 start marked his first appearance since September 18, almost four weeks after an oblique strain interrupted his season.
Manager Brian Snitker hoped for four innings. Strider delivered 2⅓, allowing five runs. Philadelphia cut short Atlanta’s plan, though the layoff prevents a clean comparison with an unrestricted, fully prepared starter.
The inning still shows how consecutive difficult plate appearances can expose a pitcher’s diminishing options. Before Stott’s double, Jean Segura had struck out after an eight-pitch battle. That out helped Strider on the scoreboard. It also made him keep working.
Knocking out the ace did not belong to one exhausting confrontation. Philadelphia combined Segura’s resistance, Stott’s adjustment, and Hoskins’ immediate damage.
The foul balls bought another chance. A double and a homer made Atlanta pay for it.
The Dodgers denied Cease an easy inning
Shohei Ohtani’s three-run homer tied the 2024 NLDS opener in the second inning. The swings that ended Dylan Cease’s start came later, from hitters near the bottom of the order.
San Diego carried a 5–3 lead into the fourth. Cease recorded the first out, then Tommy Edman reached on a bunt single. Miguel Rojas followed with another single.
Ohtani waited next.
That sequence forced manager Mike Shildt to weigh two runners against another meeting with the hitter who had already homered. Cease departed after 3⅓ innings, with five runs on his eventual line, according to the Associated Press account.
For knocking out the ace, lineup depth means making those supposedly manageable stretches difficult. Edman and Rojas did not need to match Ohtani’s power. They needed to reach base before his next turn.
Their singles also handed the incoming reliever a harder assignment.
Adrian Morejon inherited the runners, then allowed Ohtani’s broken-bat single. A wild pitch brought Edman home. Teoscar Hernández later singled against Jeremiah Estrada, driving in two runs and putting Los Angeles ahead.
The Dodgers chased the starter and kept attacking. Production from the eighth and ninth hitters carried directly into damage from the middle.
Knocking out the ace rarely belongs to the headliner alone. Ohtani’s homer supplied the spectacle; Edman and Rojas helped create the pitching change.
Los Angeles shortened Cease’s next start as well. He lasted 1⅔ innings in Game 4, although that outing came on three days’ rest. The compressed recovery belongs alongside the result when judging how thoroughly the Dodgers controlled the matchup.
Game 1 offers the cleaner lesson. Even with a lead, Cease could not get through the bottom of the order cheaply enough to stay.
The next hitter decides what the knockout buys
A manager walking toward the mound gives the offense a visible reward. What follows determines its value.
A rested bullpen can replace a struggling starter with a harder matchup. A thin relief corps may force the manager to stretch an arm through hitters he would rather avoid. Knocking out the ace creates the opening; the lineup still has to use it.
The next plate appearance demands a fresh assessment. A new pitcher brings another release point, different movement, and a different route through the count. Hitters who carry their old plan forward without adjusting can surrender the advantage they worked to create.
Texas attacked early strikes. Philadelphia survived long enough to punish a change of pitch. Los Angeles made its lesser-known hitters part of the threat.
Each approach gave the manager fewer comfortable choices.
Those choices can reach beyond the current inning. Using a trusted reliever early may leave less protection late, especially with another game approaching. Workload and recovery determine whether that expense follows the staff into tomorrow.
For the offense, the immediate task stays smaller. Recognize the strike worth attacking. Refuse the pitch designed to end the confrontation. Make the pitcher earn an out he hoped would come easily.
Another foul can force another decision. A single can bring the most dangerous hitter back with company.
The bullpen phone may still sit silent. How many more difficult choices can the starter survive before somebody picks it up?
READ MORE: Preserving October Leads Means Knowing When to Trade a Bat for a Glove
FAQs
Q1. What does knocking out the ace mean in baseball?
A. It means forcing an opponent’s leading starter out early through hits, runs, or difficult matchups that prompt the manager to change pitchers.
Q2. How did Texas chase Framber Valdez in the 2023 ALCS?
A. Texas attacked early pitches and scored four first-inning runs. Valdez allowed five runs, four earned, and exited after 2⅔ innings.
Q3. Why did Bryson Stott’s at-bat against Spencer Strider matter?
A. Stott fouled off four straight pitches with two strikes, then doubled on the ninth pitch. His RBI helped set up Hoskins’ three-run homer.
Q4. How did the Dodgers’ bottom hitters help chase Dylan Cease?
A. Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas singled before Ohtani’s fourth-inning turn. Those hits left Cease facing two runners and the top of the order.
Q5. Does chasing a starter early guarantee a postseason win?
A. No. A rested bullpen can present harder matchups, and the offense must keep producing after the pitching change.
