Coming into this game, the Braves had exorcised a lot of their 2025 demons with their 6-2 start, but one remained conspicuously absent: the one-run loss. Well, in their ninth game of the season, they finally had a one-run decision, and, in somewhat-reminiscent-of-2025 fashion, it was a loss that probably could have, and at times begged to, go a different way. In brief: Bryce Elder was outstanding, but his own defensive miscue doomed the Braves, who couldn’t find the hits that have made the start of their season a success thus far.
Elder was, as noted, really good — but former teammate and Braves Country favorite son Michael Soroka was… not. Still, as we’ve seen repeatedly in the first few games of this season, a pitcher’s performance is only part of the equation as far as the box score is concerned, and that disparity didn’t matter in the end result here.
Soroka ended up with a 3/3 K/BB ratio in five innings of work. The Braves plated a run in the second on a leadoff walk by Mike Yastrzemski, a groundout that moved him to second, a barreled out (sigh), and then Dominic Smith rolling a seeing-eye grounder through the infield for a two-out RBI. The Braves then shot themselves in the foot (shades of 2025) in the third — Ronald Acuña Jr. drew a leadoff walk but then was thrown out trying to steal, which sucked because Matt Olson crushed a double that would’ve easily scored Acuña a few pitches later. In Soroka’s final inning, the Braves seemed almost destined to score: Mauricio Dubon “singled” on a ball that actually went through shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s glove, Drake Baldwin was grazed by a pitch after Acuña popped out, and then Olson avoided a double play when Soroka dropped the relay throw at first. That brought up Austin Riley, but for the third time in game, he failed to come through (the WPA vortex is already looming large for him), hitting a routine grounder to short.
Meanwhile, Elder was really good, but to little avail in the end. After a 1-2-3 first, the Diamondbacks got a couple of singles off him in the second, though the second would’ve been an easy double play had the infield been playing Nolan Arenado up the middle. Then, Jose Fernandez dropped down a surprise bunt, and Elder ill-advisedly threw it to first. Even if the throw had been on target, it wouldn’t have been on time. It wasn’t on target either, though, and Arenado ran through a stop sign while Acuña failed to come up throwing. Just like that, it was 2-1 in favor of the home team, and that’s how the score would stay.
Elder kept dealing, though. He faced the minimum after his own error, thanks to a couple of double plays. He finished with an 8/1 K/BB ratio — his best start since that 12-strikeout performance against the Giants in San Francisco while the Braves’ 2025 season slipped away from them. He threw a bazillion pretty well-located sliders and the Diamondbacks had few answers, if they were even aware Elder was posing a question to them. But, in the end, his throwing error stood.
The Braves did nothing against a procession of Arizona relievers in the one-run contest — they went 12 up, 12 down. There was the hope that they could stun Paul Sewald again, but no dice. Last night, both Ozzie Albies and Olson homered on in-zone fastballs after seeing and not offering at some sweepers; tonight, Sewald basically threw sweeper after sweeper, and got strikeouts of Yastrzemski and Albies. Michael Harris II battled for a while, but ultimately hit a routine flyout on a hanging sweeper to end the game.
Ah, well, you can’t win them all. It’s just a shame to waste such a great Bryce Elder performance like this. Maybe the good times will keep rolling tomorrow — winning a four-game set on the road without Chris Sale pitching would still be pretty good, and better than expected. Hopefully the Mets and Phillies lose, too.
