Philadelphia’s back in town and hopefully Elder will be able to keep them quiet.
The Atlanta Braves are back at home and looking to end a long stretch of games within the division on a high note with a series win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Before they can think about the series win, they’ve got to pick up one win and no time would be better than the present here with the series opener, right?
The Braves are going with Bryce Elder to start tonight’s game and it’s an understandable and valid question to ask just how effective Elder will be heading into this one. Elder has followed up what was arguably the best start of his career with two extremely rough results against the Rockies (away from Coors Field, mind you) and the Marlins. It’s also been a while since Elder encountered the Phillies. He hasn’t seen them since 2023, which is when the Phillies tagged him for four runs over 3.2 innings back in September of that season. However, earlier on in that season Elder tossed seven shutout innings at Citizens Bank Park so again, it’s all up in the air.
Things are also a bit volatile for Philadelphia’s starter for the night, Mick Abel. Abel has five career starts under his belt as he’s made a bit of an unspectacular debut in the bigs so far. After starting his career with six shutout innings against the Pirates, he’s entered into a bit of an up-and-down pattern — He went 5.1 innings and gave up one run on June 4 before giving up three runs over just four innings six days later. Six days after that, he gave up one run over five innings in Miami before his most recent start saw him get tagged for four runs in just three innings.
If the pattern holds up then this could be a few innings of frustration for the Braves. It could also turn into a bit of an interesting game at the plate if Elder has a rough go of it as well. Combine that with the fact that both teams haven’t been particularly impressive over their most recent stretch of games and then it becomes clear that we’ve got a recipe for some very interesting baseball both on Friday night and across the weekend. As such, the Braves are in a position where they have to start stringing together some wins in order to get back into the swing of things while the Phillies are trying to wake up before the Mets do. Both teams are going to be desperate for a win in order to get the series started on the right foot and hopefully by the end of the night, we’ll be reporting back on a Braves victory.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Friday, June 27, 7:15 p.m. EDT
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, Gray TV
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan