Derek Lowe: Why He Should Still Start a Playoff Game over Brandon Beachy

The Atlanta Braves have a five game lead in the Wildcard race and look to be a lock to make their second consecutive postseason.

No one would argue that pitching is the Braves' strong suit, and their hurlers will have to pitch well if they want to make a deep run.

Brandon Beachy has been a key in the Braves' pitching staff this season, but when the playoffs start, however, Braves fans might be seeing less of the young righty.

Let's look at four reasons why Derek Lowe should start a playoff game over Brandon Beachy.

Postseason Poise

In addition to having strong regular season numbers, Lowe's postseason stats are also impressive.

He's pitched in every round of the playoffs and helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004.

He boasts an impressive 3.21 postseason ERA, which is noticeably lower than his numbers during the regular season.

Lowe does his best work at crunch time.

2010 Playoffs

In the 2010 playoffs, Derek Lowe pitched extremely well against the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants.

In two starts, he gave up only three earned runs for an ERA of 2.31.

Home Runs

One of the reasons Derek Lowe has had playoff success throughout his career has been his ability to keep the ball in the park.

He is infamous for throwing ground balls and has only given up nine homers in more than 130 innings pitched in 2011.

Comparatively, Beachy has allowed five more homers in forty less innings.

Success Late in the Year

Everyone knows Derek Lowe only gets better as the season progresses.

Here's a look at Lowe's month-by-month ERA and WHIP breakdown over his career:

	ERA	WHIP
March/April	3.64	1.297
May	4.15	1.325
June	3.88	1.279
July	3.96	1.476
August	3.57	1.223
Sept/Oct	3.23	1.255

All the more reason to give him the ball come playoff time.