Can Bryce do it again?
Atlanta desperately needs three wins this weekend at home against the Colorado Rockies. Coming off a nice series victory in Milwaukee, the Braves will give the ball to Bryce Elder in game one on Friday night to try and keep the good vibes going.
Elder is coming off a superb start against the Giants in which he struck out 12 hitters over eight nearly perfect innings. It was one of the best outings of Elder’s career, and it was a gigantic shame Pierce Johnson surrendered a game-winning homer in the 9th to ruin Bryce’s day. He deserved that win.
Despite being shifted back and forth between the majors and Triple-A Gwinnett, Elder comes into the game with a totally reasonable 4.08 ERA, 4.30 FIP, 3.47 xFIP, 21% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate across 10 starts. The name of the game in the early going for Elder has been the home run ball; it was a real issue in the first few starts of the season, but he’s surrendered just one homer over his last three starts and 19 1⁄3 innings. He’ll look to keep the baseball on the ground against the lowly Rockies.
Starting for Colorado will be veteran German Marquez, who has seemingly pitched for the Rockies since the 1980s. Marquez is 2-8 on the season with a 7.00 ERA in 13 starts, although his advanced metrics are more in the 4.5 to 5 range. The Braves crushed Marquez for 7 runs on 11 hits back in late April.
First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. ET tonight. You can watch and listen to the game in all the usual places.