A career-best start highlighted an otherwise forgettable week.
This week was bad, plain and simple.
The Atlanta Braves lost every game they played this week – including three gut-wrenching defeats, including two walk-off losses and one complete collapse the likes the team hadn’t suffered since 1973.
Atlanta has lost seven games in-a-row and now find themselves 14 games out of first place in the National League East on June 8. They are at risk of tumbling to last place, something no one could have predicted at the end of Spring Training.
It’s a somber time around Braves Country so rather than review the highlights of the players who didn’t win the award, this week the focus will only be on the player who won.
Battery Power Braves Player of the Week: Bryce Elder
Heading into Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants, Atlanta was coming off of a walk-off loss the night before and was hoping to bounce back in a pitching match-up that seemed – on paper – less than ideal with Giants ace Logan Webb facing off against right-hander Bryce Elder.
Webb pitched as well as was expected, allowing only two runs in six inning, striking out 10 without allowing a walk.
Luckily for Atlanta, Elder made the best start of his career pitching eight innings while allowing only one run and three hits without allowing a walk. He also struck out a career-high 12 batters and completed eight innings for only the second time since debuting in 2022. His only blemish was a solo home run to Wilmer Flores in the fourth.
Using FanGraphs’ game score, it was Elder’s best of his career with an 84 GS and with an equally impressive xFIP of 0.61.
Elder, who looked to be the team’s seventh or eighth starter coming into Spring Training, has now made 10 starts with a career-best 3.46 xFIP. After his 12 strike out performance on Saturday, he’s up to a strike out rate of 21-percent for the season. He has an elite rating (97) on his Baseball Savant rating for his Breaking Run Value thanks to the slider he’s thrown 350 times this season – the most of any pitch in his arsenal.
Unfortunately for Atlanta, Elder’s dominance over 107 pitches wasn’t enough to keep the Giants at bay as Matt Chapman hit a walk-off home run after Atlanta’s starter left the game after the eighth inning.
As the Braves’ ineptitude mounts, their starting pitching has continued to keep them in almost every game. This week was no different as Elder and Chris Sale both posted 10+ strikeout games for Atlanta.
But it was Elder who’s outing was the best, earning him the Battery Power Braves Player of the Week.