Today's Three Things: Bryce Elder Stumbles Against Astros
The Atlanta Braves feel like they're just going through the motions to close the 2025 season
The Atlanta Braves watched starter Bryce Elder get jumped by the Astros and weren’t able to pick him up in a 6-2 loss to the Houston Astros in Truist Park on Saturday night.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the third inning.
Houston was already up 3-0, and while they didn’t knock Bryce Elder out of the game in the inning, they did push the game out of reach.
Veteran Carlos Correa left off the inning with a double to left, coming off a first-pitch slider in the bottom of the zone. Jose Altuve sent him to third with a single to right before Correa came in to score on a slow ground ball to second, with Altuve being the only out that Ozzie Albies had on the play. Christian Walker then got a sinker that stayed too far up in the zone and launched it to dead center, driving in two more and pushing the Astros’ lead to 6-0.
Today’s Player of the Game
The Ironman first baseman was almost all of the offense today, picking up two of Atlanta’s five hits and scoring both of their runs. He first got the Braves on the board via a solo homer in the bottom of the 4th before leading off the 7th with a single and coming around to score.
It’s a strong end to the campaign for Olson, who is hitting .307/.382/.526 in his last 30 games and has three homers in the last week of action. His season average is up to .271, and while he’s not consistently been launching homers this season, sitting at just 24 on the season, his .466 slug still leads all qualified hitters on the roster.
Honorable mention to Dylan Dodd, who rebounded from a tough outing with 3.2 scoreless innings in relief of Elder. Entering with one out in the 5th, he allowed only two walks in the twelve batters he faced, striking out four.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The offensive woes.
The Braves had just six hits in this one, with the Olson homer and a late Jurickson Profar double accounting for the only extra-base hits. It honestly looks like they’re kind of playing out the string of a lost season.
But there are two young players who are severely struggling right now, and it has consequences beyond just 2025.
Michael Harris II is back to a dreadful slump, with just one hit in his last seven games and a batting average of just .077 in September. After two hot months after the All-Star Break, ones in which he hit .301 (July) and .311 (August) thanks to a mechanical change, he’s almost gone too far with his adjustments and is back to slumping at the moment. There’s a legitimate reason to look into adding a starting-caliber outfielder this summer, to better give Ronald Acuña Jr. and Profar some occasional ‘half-days’ as designated hitters, but getting someone that could cover centerfield if Harris slumps again wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
The other significant slump is for catcher Drake Baldwin. Thrown into an everyday role after the injury to Sean Murphy, Baldwin’s just 2-for-27 in his last seven games, and it looks increasingly unlikely that he'll catch Cade Horton of the Chicago Cubs in the Rookie of the Year race as a result.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the loss.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are looking to salvage the series and avoid a sweep in Sunday’s finale, but it won’t be easy: Joey Wentz (5-6, 5.61) and the Braves are facing off with lefty Framber Valdez (12-9, 3.42) at 1:35 PM ET.
I was living in my hometown, Durham, NC, when Snitker was managing the Durham Bulls in the early 1980s. Durham was Atlanta's Carolina League affiliate.
Atlanta was so concerned about how poorly Durham was playing they sent Hank Aaron to watch the team.
Hank watched a few home games. He told the Durham Sun the guys weren't playing hard. Just going through the motions.
Snitker told the Sun he didn't detect any of this.
I wonder if that's going on again. The players are going through the motions confident Snitker won't be back.
There is much about Bryce Elder to like - he shows up ready to pitch, he never complains or makes excuses. He was in a good place the previous three games but his downfall always seems to be leaving sliders or a change ups middle/middle and they never miss 'em. If he's back next year as some part of the rotation it's because McGuirk hamstrung AA again and there is no real improvement in starting options (that's assuming the current walking-wounded have all healed and are ready to go, which is a real stretch.)