ATLANTA -- Bryce Elder has a sub-1.00 ERA through four starts and Chris Sale’s 37-year-old arm remains one of baseball’s best. As for Reynaldo López and Grant Holmes, they have both remained healthy.
"The first couple years here, it felt like every day you’d roll up to the field just expecting to win,” Elder said. “Last year, it didn’t feel like that at all.”
Three weeks into this season, it seems like this year could feel much different. There’s an expectation that Dominic Smith might do what he did on Tuesday night, when he delivered a go-ahead three-run double with two outs in the eighth inning of a thrilling win.
There’s also an expectation that Elder is going to deliver much like he did while guiding the Braves to a 6-3 win over the Marlins on Wednesday night at Truist Park. By taking the final two games of this three-game set, Atlanta remained MLB’s only team to yet lose a series.
“When you start to win games and you start to win series, you start to believe,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “I go back to the stuff I was saying in Spring Training and at the end of camp. It’s just a really good vibe and the guys have a really good look in their eyes. They're playing that way.”
The Braves have won 12 of their first 19 games, despite the fact that Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley have started slowly. Riley hit his first homer on Wednesday, but he was more encouraged by the ringing opposite-field double he drilled in his next plate appearance.
Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies also homered as the Braves took the MLB lead in runs scored (106). The offense has been exciting and the injury-depleted rotation has been a pleasant surprise.
After Elder recorded seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings against the Marlins, the Braves owned MLB’s second-best starting pitching ERA (2.84). This success has quieted the concerns created when four Atlanta starters were injured in Spring Training.
“They’re giving us a chance to win every night,” Riley said. “They’re competing their butts off."
Elder ranks fourth in the Majors with a 0.77 ERA. He joins Hurston Waldrep (2025), López ('24), Max Fried ('23), Aaron Harang ('14), John Smoltz ('08), Tim Hudson ('07) and John Thomson ('06) as the only Braves pitchers to produce a sub-1.00 ERA through their first four starts over the past 20 years. Waldrep is the only member of this group whose streak didn’t begin at the start of a season.
The good news is Elder’s success isn’t necessarily a surprise. He completed at least six innings and allowed three runs or fewer in six of his final seven starts last year. He has a 2.12 ERA over the 11 starts he has made going back to Aug. 24.
“He’s throwing the ball really well,” Weiss said.
It’s far too early to think health-related concerns about Atlanta’s rotation were overblown. But three weeks into the season, there’s reason to feel better about this group of starters, each of whom will make their next start with an extra day of rest.
Needing to protect their bullpen depth this past weekend, the Braves took a chance by designating Martín Pérez for assignment on Sunday. The veteran lefty passed through waivers, elected free agency and rejoined the Braves with a Minor League contract on Wednesday.
Pérez is expected to be added to Atlanta’s roster in time to start Friday night’s series opener in Philadelphia. As long as he remains effective, the 34-year-old hurler could make three starts before the Braves will need to find a rotation spot for Spencer Strider, who will likely remain on a rehab assignment through the end of this month.
We’ll see where the Braves' rotation stands when Strider makes his expected return in May. But his addition could make this very good rotation even better.
“I really like where we're at,” Elder said.