Elder is back and Miami had no answers to what he was delivering from the mound on Monday night.
Bryce Elder’s return to the big leagues went about as well as anybody could’ve drawn it up for the Atlanta Braves. His near-seven innings of shutout work helped push the Braves to a 3-0 series-opening win over the Miami Marlins.
The game started out a bit weird, as both teams came out of the gates looking to score and seemingly poised to cash in at least one run. Indeed, the Marlins started off the game with two singles and a double that was inches away from flying over the fence. Instead of it being a homer for Jazz Chisholm Jr., it was a long double and Luis Arraez ended up getting thrown out at home plate because of all the confusion as to whether or not Chisholm’s fly ball would be leaving the park or not. Two harmless fly balls later and Elder was out of the inning — and on 10 pitches, no less!
The Braves got things going thanks to a single and stolen base from Ronald Acuña Jr. — his franchise record-breaking 190th stolen base as a member of the Braves — and then a walk and a ground ball made it so that Marcell Ozuna came up to the plate with two men in scoring position and two outs. Sadly, Ozuna hit a soft grounder deep into the hole that Tim Anderson was able to turn into an out with a long throw while jumping. Both teams had a shot to score in the first inning and both teams ended up leaving the frame empty-handed.
Things would remain scoreless through the first three innings, as both Bryce Elder and Ryan Weathers seemed up for the task of keeping the opposing hitters at bay for the evening. However, you can only keep this Braves lineup quiet for so long and the fourth inning was when Atlanta woke up. Marcell Ozuna got things going in the fourth with a one-out walk and that brought Travis d’Arnaud to the plate. d’Arnaud was coming into the game hot off the heels of his epic three homer night on Saturday night and still looked ready and willing to do more damage here on Monday night.
d’Arnaud took the first pitch he saw from Weathers and pulled it down the line for a big fly ball. Once it came down, it hit the foul pole on the way down and just like that, d’Arnaud had hit yet another dinger and the Braves were in front by two.
Adam Duvall walked immediately after Travis d’Arnaud’s homer and then made it to second base after a productive out moved him into scoring position. David Fletcher then got an opportunity to extend Atlanta’s lead with two outs in the frame and Fletcher came through with a bouncer that he sent the opposite way past Josh Bell at first base. Duvall scored easily from third base and the Braves were now in control of the game at 3-0.
The three runs ended up being more than enough help for Bryce Elder, who turned in a vintage performance that was reminiscent of the good times from last season. Once Elder was done for the night, he had gotten through 6.2 innings with eight hits allowed but no walks, four strikeouts and zero runs given up. As the eight hits suggest, the Marlins weren’t exactly woebegone out there but Elder made sure to mitigate any damage and threats that came his way while he was out there.
Simply put, it was exactly the type of start that the Braves were looking for and I think it’s a safe assumption that Elder will get another chance to keep his spot in the rotation after this performance.
Elder was relieved by Pierce Johnson, who struck out Nick Fortes to end the seventh inning. A.J. Minter got the ball for the eighth inning and sat down the top of Miami’s lineup in order to ensure that the Braves would enter the ninth inning with at least a three-run lead. Raisel Iglesias came on for the ninth looking to lock down the save and Atlanta’s closer made no mistake as he also sat down the Marlins in order to end the game and put the Braves back in the win column.
Atlanta has to be very pleased with what they got from Bryce Elder tonight and it was also nice to see Travis d’Arnaud keep up the good work when it comes to his bat. This was one of those wins where the Braves simply got out there and took care of business. Hopefully we’ll keep on seeing them string together wins and they’ll be looking for the series win tomorrow night starting at 7:20 P.M. with Max Fried taking the mound for the home team.