2023 #7: Elder Dominates, Braves Sweep
The Braves completed the first sweep of the season, taking all three games from the home team Cardinals. What’s equally as impressive is the fact that they did so without any one of Max Fried, Spencer Strider, or Kyle Wright pitching in the series. In fact, Dylan Dodd and Bryce Elder combined for eleven innings of one-run baseball in Games One & Two.
Bryce Elder’s Game Three dominance was not only unsurprising to me, but expected. Elder shutout the Cardinals for six innings, only allowing two hits while striking out six.
After Elder’s exit, reliever Michael Tonkin gave up a solo shot to Cardinals youngster Jordan Walker, the first of his young career. McHugh ran into a bit of trouble in the 9th before handing the ball over to Jesse Chavez to record the one-out save.
With Shuster’s debut struggles that prompted his demotion & my long-documented belief in Bryce Elder, you can plant me firmly in the “Elder in the Rotation” camp for 2023.
Elsewhere on the diamond, Atlanta put on a defensive clinic for St. Louis to refer back to on their flight to Milwaukee for their weekend series against the Brewers.
Most notably, Michael Harris II ran down a 399-foot smack off the bat of reigning MVP Paul Goldschmidt to sent him back to his assigned seat in the dugout.
Observe:
At the Plate, Matt Olson was en fuego. He was 3-for-5 with a 2nd-inning bomb off starter Miles Mikolas & two doubles. Both doubles scored Ronald Acuña Jr. from 1st base; spoiler alert, Acuña is BACK back.
Throughout this series, Atlanta outplayed & frankly DOMINATED St. Louis.
The Braves were the better team defensively. The Braves were the better team offensively. The Braves were damn sure the better pitching staff.
The Braves outscored the Cardinals 17-7, which is a lot closer than the play on the field demonstrated.
Atlanta will carry a 2.5-game division lead over Miami & New York, into the first home series of the season. The four-game home series will be capped off with a nationally televised game on ESPN as the week’s Sunday Night Baseball game against San Diego.
The projected starters are as follows…
Game One: Strider vs Snell
Game Two: TBD vs Martinez
Game Three: Morton vs Wacha
Game Four: Dodd vs Lugo