Bryce Elder continued serving out his favorite dish this season, the recipe of which includes ingredients like first-pitch strikes, sliders and keeping the ball in the ballpark.
Elder lowered his ERA to 0.77 thanks to 5 2/3 more scoreless innings Wednesday in the Braves’ 6-3 win over the Marlins at Truist Park. The right-hander gave up four hits, struck out seven, walked two and hit another in his fourth start of the season.
The slider was in good shape from Elder, too, with all nine of his swing-and-misses coming on that pitch. Elder (2-1) worked ahead on 15 of 23 batters and 53 of his 79 pitches were strikes.
“I was pleased with it,” Elder said of his performance. “I thought I kept ‘em off balance for the most part, and executed pitches when I needed to.”
The Marlins didn’t get a hit off Elder until Connor Norby’s two-out double in the fourth. Elder’s first real trouble came in the fifth when the Marlins (9-10) loaded the bases with one out, but Xavier Edwards whacked a fastball back through the middle that Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón gloved and turned into a 6-3 double play.
Braves pitching coach Jeremy Hefner paid Elder a visit on the mound before Edwards’ at-bat
“Just kind of, you know, figuring out what pitch we can attack with in that situation and take my chances over the plate, instead of trying to nibble and try to get a swing and miss. Just kind of go right at ‘em,” Elder said of that conversation. “It’s good little reset. And I thought ‘Baldy’ (catcher Drake Baldwin) called a heck of a game tonight, so I thought it was good.”
Dylan Lee got the final out of the sixth after Elder had been lifted. Tyler Kinley was perfect in the seventh, and after Osvaldo Bido was charged three runs in the eighth, Robert Suarez ended the penultimate inning with a double play, and Raisel Iglesias (S, 4) closed it out in the ninth.
The Braves (12-7) improved to 5-0-1 in their first six series of the season before traveling to Philadelphia for a three-game series against the Phillies starting Friday. They’ll have a bit of momentum heading to face a division rival thanks to Elder who got all the run support he needed and then some Wednesday.
Ozzie Albies put the Braves on the board and into the lead with a solo homer with one out in the second. That marked the 13th time in 19 games the Braves have scored first.
Dubón added to the lead later in the inning with a run-scoring single to left.
In the sixth, Austin Riley hit the first pitch from reliever John King on a line just over the wall in left, making it 3-0. It was the first home run of the season for Riley who had gone a career-long 18 games (2021) to start a season without a home run.
“All the preparation, being hurt the last couple years and the work that I did this offseason and a good spring, it’s like you want to hit the ground running, and obviously hadn’t,” Riley said. “Good momentum to build on, especially following (with) the double right after and staying on the pitch right there. I think that was nice to be able to go into an off day with that.”
Andrew Nardi became a whipping boy in the seventh after a one-out fly ball into the gap off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr. was dropped by a sliding Jakob Marsee. Drake Baldwin scored Acuña with an RBI single before Matt Olson crushed a 423-foot home run to right making it 6-0.
Marlins starter Chris Paddack only allowed the two runs in the second. He left after 4 2/3 innings, working around five hits and striking out four.
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