The Angels teed off on beleaguered Braves starter Bryce Elder, and the Braves lost 5-1 on Thursday at Truist Park.

Elder (2-6) battled through five innings and left after giving up four earned runs on eight hits and walking three. Nine balls hit by the Angels left the bat at 100 miles per hour or more.

“I’ve pitched enough and know you make a mistake over the heart of the plate they’re gonna hit it hard,” Elder said. “At the end of the day I just have to make better pitches.”

In his last four starts, Elder has been touched up for 22 earned runs, walked 11 batters, given up seven home runs and 33 hits. He has given up at least four earned runs in six of his 14 starts.

“When I look at it, I think mostly, it’s consistency of commanding the ball. I think at times I really command it well and I think at times I don’t. I think you can see that,” Elder said. “I think it’s just trying to figure out a way to consistently put the ball where I want it to and move the way I want it to. Kinda been in and out.”

Added manager Brian Snitker on Elder’s command issues: “Just a lot of non-competitive pitches.”

Angels starter Jose Soriano (6-5), who had allowed eight earned runs to the Nationals his last time out, was on the other end of the spectrum from Elder, using a hard and fast sinker and knuckle curve to keep the Braves offense off-balance.

Soriano went seven scoreless innings and gave up just three hits. He struck out seven.

“That sinker’s real. (Soriano’s) a tough ride. He put the ball on the ground a lot. Knew that going in,” Snitker said. “But you never know, you keep the ballgame close, you get in the bullpen and something good might happen.”

In 27 innings against the Angels this week, the Braves scored in just three of those innings.

After a leadoff single Thursday, Elder nearly escaped the first unblemished. But he walked Taylor Ward with two outs before Jo Adell’s RBI single up the middle gave the Angels (43-43) the early lead.

Elder’s 34th pitch of the first inning to Logan O’Hoppe turned into a cue ball shot to Matt Olson at first to leave the bases loaded.

Elder got two quick outs in the second, then Zach Neto banged a double off the left-centerfield wall and Nolan Schanuel destroyed a 3-1 change-up for a two-run homer to dead center.

Neto took Elder deep with one out in the fourth, a solo shot into the Braves’ bullpen, making it 4-0. That hit put Neto a triple short of the cycle after three at-bats in the game’s first four innings.

“It doesn’t help when I set us up in a 4-0 hole right off the bat,” Elder said. “I think that starts first inning, we go down 1-0. Put the guys in a hole. That’s on me there. It’s tough to get the offense rolling when you’re always kind of coming from behind.”

Ward’s two-out RBI triple in the sixth off Braves reliever Enyel De Los Santos made it 5-0. Ward’s scorching line drive to left sailed past a diving Jurickson Profar and rolled all the way to the wall.

Profar’s solo home run in the ninth kept the Braves from getting shut out for the eighth time this season, but they’ve still dropped 6 of 8.

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