Let’s start this by going back to what I said about the starting pitching coming into this season — particularly about Bryce Elder:
This is your reminder that Elder led the Braves in innings pitched last season and did so by just over 30 innings over Chris Sale. As I said to start this post, as long as that doesn’t repeat itself then the Braves should be fine and the Braves should be okay with Elder being a fifth starter for however long this may take.
Welp, here we are: It’s August 26 and Bryce Elder is once again leading the Braves in innings pitched. It’s not by as much as last season but he’s once again at the top of the proverbial Kennesaw Mountain when it comes to innings pitched for the Cobb County baseball club. And as we all predicted, the Braves are in the midst of another nightmare season where the Postseason seems out of reach and the Braves are scrambling for answ—
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Oh wait, they’re in first place. Oh wait, the rotation has actually been fine, even as everybody (myself included) has suffered some varying level of crash-out about the lack of additions to the rotation. Oh wait, Bryce Elder has actually been perfectly fine this season, even with his now-trademark ups-and-downs that he’s privy to experience in any given season.
We got another example of that in Tuesday night’s season opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is when Elder pitched another six strong innings and held LA to just three runs allowed and played a crucial role in keeping the Braves in it long enough to eventually make a breakthrough that led to a 4-3 victory. In fact, Elder has pitched 11.2 innings against the Dodgers across two starts this season and he’s struck out 13 Dodgers batters with just the nine hits and three runs allowed. That is a very nifty job against a team that Atlanta will likely have to go through (again) if they want to potentially lift the World Series trophy (again) in October and while the Postseason is a completely different beast, it’s surely a bit of a confidence-booster for Elder knowing that he’s capable of keeping this lineup from going wild.
ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 25: Bryce Elder #55 of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kathryn Skeean/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
When I asked him after Tuesday’s game about his performances against the Dodgers this season, Elder actually mentioned that he felt like his start against Los Angeles back in April was him at his peak. “I think those two starts against Seattle and the Dodgers [back in April] are the best that my stuff’s ever been,” stated Elder. He didn’t state that there was a common thread between the start he made back in April and the one he made on Tuesday but it’s still encouraging to hear that he felt like his best stuff came against a lineup of Los Angeles’ caliber.
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It was also refreshingly candid to hear about Elder’s approach to Shohei Ohtani, who still has yet to pick up a hit againast him across those two starts. Elder was asked about a pitch in particular in the second at-bat, which is when he opened up the AB by throwing a fastball right down the middle. “I just figured that if something’s going to happen, let’s make it quick,” exclaimed Elder, which got a laugh out of the room. “The last thing I wanted to do is fall behind in that situation and give him a better chance. So I thought ‘Well, I’ll take a chance and see what happens’ and luckily he took it because it sure wasn’t supposed to be right down the middle!”
ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 25: Bryce Elder #55 of the Atlanta Braves pitches in the first inning during the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Truist Park on August 25, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)
It really is kind of wild to think that Bryce Elder essentially got away with leaving a hanger to Shohei Ohtani because Ohtani probably wasn’t expecting it to come during the first pitch of the AB. That’s baseball for you and that’s an example of the chess match and guessing game that is always going on during any particular AB in any given game. Elder also came up big during his final inning, which is when he managed to avoid seeing Ohtani with the bases loaded by getting Hunter Feduccia to strike out swinging with two men on.
“Great job by Bryce getting through six,” stated Walt Weiss when he was asked about Elder’s performance on Tuesday night. “In that sixth inning, I had [Dylan] Dodd up [in the bullpen] but if bring in Dodd there, you’re going to see some pinch hitters — Teoscar [Hernández] is sitting over there and you got [Miguel] Rojas over there and they can both hit lefties really well, so I chose to let Bryce go after those guys. He did a great job getting those big outs in the sixth inning to put that inning down.”
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I know that it’s still going to be pretty tough to trust Elder in the Postseason once he’s eventually called upon. You can also make the argument that the Dodgers are in a bit of a coasting mode at the moment before they turn things up in the Postseason (and their team wRC+ since the break has certainly been underwhelming) but at the same time, that still doesn’t take away from the fact that Elder has consistently gotten the job done against this Dodgers lineup so far in 2026.
It’s the type of effort that gives you hope that both Elder and the rest of the pitching staff could have what it takes to get it done in October. They’ve definitely been doing their best to keep things from going completely sideways over the past couple of weeks and now hopefully they’ll play a big role in helping to push the Braves towards a divisional title and a big run in October. We’ll see what happens.
