The Atlanta Braves dropped Friday afternoon’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2. They got a strong outing from Bryce Elder, which was a long time coming after a string of rough outings from the right-hander.
He pitched 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out five batters. In his last seven starts heading into Friday, he had a 10.50 ERA in 30 innings pitched. Two of those starts, he allowed eight earned runs or more, including his previous start on Sunday out in Texas. He’s also had trouble with the long ball, allowing eight home runs in that span.
At last, he got his job done, putting the Braves in a position to win a ballgame. Unfortunately for the Elder, the offensive woes showed up again when his woes took a day off.
The Braves offense mustered just two runs, both of which came during a ninth-inning rally, to fall short in the game. They finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position while leaving eight runners on base.
They had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the second, got a one-out base runner in the second, and got a lead-off hitter on in the top of the fifth. None of them scored. Neither of the runners on second and third with one out in the top of the eighth inning found their way home either.
Michael Harris II and Matt Olson each had multi-hit games. Neither effort ended up helping much, though Harris was driven in one of the times.
It was just too little too late again. The night after they scored 12 runs and went 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position, the polar opposite day occurred. Inconsistency continues to kill this team.
With the loss, they drop to 46-63 on the season and are 14 games back of a playoff spot.
Friday’s game was not the final game of the series, but it was the last to be played in Cincinnati. Saturday, they head to Bristol, Tenn., for the MLB Speedway Classic. It will be the first regular-season game played by either a National League team or an American League team.
The game is expected to have over 85,000 fans in the stands waiting to see the historic game, which will break the single-game attendance record. This is assumed to be the regular-season attendance record, since the Dodgers and Red Sox played in front of 115,000 people for an exhibition game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2008.
Spencer Strider is set to take the mound to pitch in front of the monster crowd. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m.
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