Bryce Elder kept his team in the game in his homecoming, but the Braves lost to the Rangers, 3-1, on Saturday at Globe Life Field.
Here are five observations on Atlanta (10-12):
1. This start hit Bryce Elder like no other.
“It was the first time I’ve ever rooted against the Rangers, so it was a little different,” he said.
Elder is from Decatur, Texas, which is about 50 miles from Arlington. He made this start in front of his mom, dad and grandma, as well as tons of family friends and people from his town and county.
“It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Elder said.
2. Rangers starter Dane Dunning turned in what might be the best start of his career.
He pitched deeper into a game than he had in his career – 7 2/3 innings – and only allowed one run. And that run came on Ronald Acuña’s accidental check swing, which blooped a ball right over the first baseman’s head.
“He did a good job of obviously missing barrels today,” said Travis Demeritte, who scored the Braves’ only run. “He was living on the corners of the plate today, so it made it kind of hard for you to just kind of sit on one, I guess. Kind of had to, but he did a very good job of mixing today and just keeping us off balance, honestly. He did an even better job really locating.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3. How would Elder evaluate this outing?
“Kind of similar to the last (starts),” he said.
In San Diego: 4 1/3 innings pitched, two earned runs, five walks.
Versus Miami: 4 2/3 innings pitched, two earned runs, six walks.
On Saturday in Texas: 4 1/3 innings, three earned runs, three walks.
Elder said he can live with Corey Seager’s first-inning solo home run, or the other hits. He seemed bothered by issuing multiple two-out walks. After one of them, he felt he didn’t control the running game well because the runner stole second base, which enabled him to score on a single.
“Those are the things that sting that I’ve done well for my whole life and I’m not doing well right now, so I’ve got to be better and find a way to be that soon,” Elder said.
Over four starts in the big leagues, Elder has a 4.74 ERA.
“I learned that there’s something different that comes at you every start,” he said. “And it’s been like that my whole life but here, you make mistakes, you pay for them. I’ve learned something different each start. Keep trying to make adjustments, keep trying to get better and just got to stay at it.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
4. Spencer Strider recently had a long conversation with Max Fried, the club’s No. 1 starter. It helped him pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings, with five strikeouts and only one walk, versus Texas.
The message: “Hitting’s hard. When you have velocity, good stuff, whatever – either way – you have to let the hitter hit the ball. More often than not, they’re not going to. You can really only get in your own way, and that’s kind of how I feel like I’ve been going about it: Trying to miss bats, hit spots, instead of just going right at the catcher’s mask and letting it happen.”
Strider changed his approach. Instead of trying too hard to miss bats, he tried to simply attack hitters and get swings and contact. He called the talk with Fried “freeing.”
5. Seager has dominated the Braves.
He has nine home runs against them in 23 games. He only has more homers against four other opponents, and those are the NL West teams with which he shared a division as a member of the Dodgers.
Entering Saturday, Seager had posted an .871 on-base plus slugging percentage against the Braves.
Stat to know
78 - The average exit velocity on 20 balls put in play by the Braves against Dunning was only 78 mph.
Quotable
“It is early. Of course, we want to get off to the best start as possible. That’s everybody’s ideal image of how they’d like the season to go. ... It’s just a matter of us just continuing to build off of that and staying within ourselves and not panicking.” - Demeritte on the Braves’ standing
Up next
The Braves will face Texas lefty Taylor Hearn Sunday, but Atlanta has not announced a starter. The game begins at 2:35 p.m. ET.
