It’s Bryce Elder against an offense that isn’t so hot right now. Let’s see how this goes!
Fresh off of completing a series win in a four-game entanglement with the Reds, the Atlanta Braves are on the road and right back at it tonight as they get set to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first of three games.
Bryce Elder will be making the start for the Braves in this one and it appears to be a case where Elder won’t be heading into it with a daunting task in terms of opposition. The Pittsburgh Pirates are coming into this series with one of the worst offensive lines as a unit in baseball so far this season. The Pirates are hitting .219/.300/.325 with a wOBA of .284, an Isolated Power number of .107 and a team wRC+ of 76. The Pirates have to thank the White Sox and Rockies for not being uniquely bad in that situation but it’s still a pretty rough spot to be in. Their power numbers are especially brutal as their ISO is the worst in the National League and they’ve hit an NL-worst 26 homers as a team so far this season.
I’m saying all of that to say that it would be extremely disappointing if Bryce Elder went out there and got bombed by the Pirates this evening. If anything, the clear hope for Elder in this one is that he’ll be able to pick up where he left off against the Dodgers. While Elder only went five innings, he was able to keep the Dodgers from doing a ton of serious damage while he was out there for five innings. If Elder can deliver another solid start then the Braves might be alright in this one if Pittsburgh’s offense continues to struggle like they have here in 2025.
With that being said, the Braves still have to show up and the lineup has to hold up their end of the bargain here. They’ll have to figure out a way to deal with Bailey Falter, who actually made a pretty strong start against the Braves in his outing against them last season. Falter only gave up one run through five innings as the Pirates eventually won 4-2, so it’s not like this is going to be a walkover game for the Braves by any stretch of the imagination. With that being said, Falter isn’t exactly heading into this one on a dominant run, himself.
Falter has given up at least three runs in four of his seven starts so far this season and he’s given up even more than that in a couple of starts as well. He’s been nowhere near spectacular to begin with and again, it’s going to be a matter of the Braves actually taking advantage of the matchup instead of falling by the wayside and getting dominated. If the Braves lineup can take advantage of the pitching matchup then we could be talking about Atlanta potentially being at .500 once the end of the night rolls around.
On paper, this seems like a game that the Braves should be able to win. Even with the Pirates seemingly banking on a bounce that comes along with firing their manager, if the Braves are on their game in this one then they should be able to pull off the victory in this one. Still, it’ll take Bryce Elder avoiding his usual pratfall of offering up a hanger at the worst possible moment and Atlanta’s lineup avoiding a disappearing act. I don’t envision a slugfest breaking out but even if it did, I’d favor the Braves if it came down to seeing which offense was better. Either way, the Braves are in a position where if they want to reach the land of .500 then they’ll have to take care of business against this particular Pirates team. We’ll see if they can make it happen!
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, May 9, 6:40 p.m. EDT
Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan