After a display of offensive futility last night, the Braves will attempt to bounce back and take the series against fun-2024-story-so-far Ben Lively
After a wild, snatching-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory loss last night, the Braves will play their second rubber game of the season on Sunday afternoon. (Their first one ended in defeat to the Mets). The contest will feature a matchup between two guys who didn’t make their respective teams’ Opening Day rosters: Bryce Elder and Ben Lively.
We’ll start with Elder, who “lost” the “battle” for the fifth starter spot to Reynaldo Lopez in Spring Training, and made three starts down in Triple-A before being recalled to fill the rotation spot created by Spencer Strider. His first big league start of 2024 was a great one and kicked off an amazing run of starting pitching by the Braves: Elder went 6 2⁄3 scoreless with a 4/0 K/BB ratio (though he did hit a batter) against the Marlins; the next four starters went, in order — nine shutout innings with a 6/0 K/BB ratio, seven innings with a solo homer and a 6/2 K/BB ratio, seven innings with a solo homer and a 6/1 K/BB ratio, and, lastly, seven scoreless innings with a 6/1 K/BB ratio. So, Elder has big shoes to fill in some respects, but those shoes started being widened by his own performance.
On the flip side, Elder isn’t facing the Marlins. When he faced these Guardians last year, it came in his post-June swoon period, and while he lasted 6 2⁄3 and was only charged with two runs, he also managed just a 1/2 K/BB ratio, which is not a recipe for any kind of success.
Meanwhile, Ben Lively has been a really fun, under-the-radar story in Cleveland. A fourth-round pick of the Reds all the way back in 2013, Lively had an unremarkable handful of major league appearances from 2017-2019 with the Phillies and Royals. He then went to the Korean Baseball Organization and appeared in parts of three seasons there where he pitched reasonably well, but also suffered a shoulder injury. After spending 2022 in the minors with the Reds, he got a handful of appearances with their big league club in 2023, where again, the pitching was pretty unremarkably generic — his pitching triple-slash pre-2024 was a 114 ERA-, 115 FIP-, and a 117 xFIP-.
But, you know about the Cleveland pitching factory, and while the evidence that they’ve somehow refurbished Lively into a more functional version of himself isn’t particularly robust right now, perhaps the results speak for themselves. Lively didn’t make the Opening Day roster because of an illness. After two unremarkable rehab starts down in Triple-A to start his season (4/1 K/BB ratio, a homer allowed in 8 1⁄3 innings), Lively was activated ahead of his April 17 outing against the Red Sox, and ended up thrilling his new team: a 7/1 K/BB ratio in five innings, with runs scoring on a balk and a solo homer. (The Guardians lost the game, 2-0). A week later, Lively came back and faced the Red Sox again (go figure). This time, he went 6 1⁄3 with a 7/0 K/BB ratio in a 4-1 win; the only run against him came on a seventh-inning solo homer.
As for how Lively’s done it to the Red Sox in two starts, well, it’s… Jesse Chavez as a starter. He’s essentially got a six-pitch arsenal, though he’s largely sinker-four-seamer-sweeper, and it’s all about location, manipulation, and keeping guys guessing. None of the pitches are particularly exciting on paper (the breaking pitches are fine) and he’s generally not exceeding 91 mph with his fastballs, but, well, it bamboozled Boston twice. The Braves can probably do a lot of damage on his fastballs if they sniff them out, but there’s a lot to be wary of given that he’s a junkballer and he knows it.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Sunday, April 28, 1:35 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia
TV: Bally Sports South
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
XM Radio: Ch. 175