Gloom, doom, and brooms
Well, Bryce Elder is bad. I’m not sure what exactly else the Atlanta Braves are supposed to throw out there, but Bryce Elder is just bad.
It all started in the top of the first. Elder walked the first two batters he faced, and he ultimately walked the bases loaded. Wyatt Langford followed with a bases-clearing double that feels just kind of inevitable these days. Braves down 3-0.
Atlanta “fought” back in the top of the second with their own leadoff walks, and then Sean Murphy hit a hilarious ground-rule double down the left field line. He, for all intents and purposes, popped it up down the line, and it fell perfectly in the triangle and just inside the line. But that’s all Atlanta would get. Braves down 3-1.
In the bottom of the second, Elder gave it back plus some. Jonah Heim singled before Josh Smith, who I was like who the heck is that before the game, homered. Braves down 5-1.
Elder decided to remove all doubt in the next inning. Adolis Garcia singled. Langford walked. Evan Carter got hit by a pitch. Josh Jung singled in two. Heim then singled in another. Elder got to pitch to one more batter to get the second out of the inning before Dylan Dodd got dutifully brought in, and he got a strikeout to end the inning. Braves down 8-1.
And the rest of the game was pretty boring. One other half inning had 5 hitters.
Jack Leiter, like some of you mentioned in the comments before the game, pitched awesome. Six innings, three hits, three walks, and seven strikeouts. It’s fine. It’s fine.
Caleb Boushley (?) pitched a couple solid innings before Cole Winn finished the Braves off by striking out the side (one hit sprinkled in).
The Atlanta Braves, what’s left of them, head to Kansas City to face the Royals in a three-game set starting tomorrow.