When they desperately needed a hero, the most unlikely source stepped up. Then the Atlanta Braves proceeded to waste said heroic performance in yet another excruciating loss. On paper, a pitching matchup between Bryce Elder and Logan Webb grants a huge advantage to the Giants. However, the Braves starter put together the performance of a lifetime yesterday afternoon and out-dueled one of the best pitchers in baseball.
The final line was the best we’ve seen from Elder in what was his 60th start at the major league level. The Texas native tossed eight innings of one-run ball, and struck out a career high 12 batters on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was all for nothing as the Braves bullpen had their latest late inning meltdown.
Elder seems to have turned a corner, but Braves offense remains ice cold
Bryce Elder has been yo-yo’d back and forth between the Majors and the minors over the last two seasons collectively. To be fair his performance never warranted a long-term spot in the rotation. However, this season Elder has looked every bit as good as he was during the first half of his 2023 All-Star season.
His stuff looked as good as ever yesterday against San Francisco, pumping in 93-94 mph sinkers and breaking off devastating sliders and changeups. After yesterday’s gem, Elder lowered his ERA to 4.08 on the season. On top of that, the underlying numbers are starting to give more hope to fans that he can keep this up. Elder now sports a 4.29 FIP and 3.45 xFIP as of this morning, meaning he’s underperforming his expected numbers on the season.
The adjustment on his sinker has paid off big time, and as long as Elder keeps getting a ton of groundballs (82nd percentile in groundball rate) and limiting the walks he can be more than fine in the backend of Atlanta’s rotation.
Unfortunately, no matter how well Elder and the rest of the rotation pitches, the Braves won’t snap out of this funk until they start scoring runs more consistently. Frustration is beginning to boil over in the Braves clubhouse as many are at a loss for words to describe this losing streak. In the end the same problems present themself on a nightly basis.
Not hitting for as much power, being abysmal with men on base, and a lineup that feels hopeless at the bottom: these are the traits of the 2025 Braves offense. So long as the traits keep showing up, expect more pitching performances like Elder’s to get wasted.
