PHILADELPHIA — Toward the end of spring training, the Braves optioned Bryce Elder. At this point, you wondered what this season might be like for Elder. If he would fade. If he would still be in the Braves’ plans. If he would return with a vengeance.
Around seven months later, the Braves announced Elder as their starter for Wednesday’s Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. It is a continuation of an incredible story, as the righty is one of the Braves’ more pleasant surprises this season.
“It’s awesome,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of giving Elder the ball for Game 3. “Yeah, I’m happy. I feel good about this, the decision that we made. So like I say, man, there’s a guy that laid it on the line for you for however many starts all year, fought through some adversities as they all do. So I’m happy that he’s having this opportunity.”
In his postseason debut, Elder was charged with six runs over 2 2/3 innings. He pitched two perfect innings, then unraveled in the third. The Braves lost, 10-2, and their season is on the line in Game 4.
In that third inning, he allowed a leadoff homer to Nick Castellanos, which tied the game. Later in the frame, Bryce Harper hammered a three-run shot to the second deck in right field. The Braves didn’t have anyone warming until Harper homered, so Elder faced two more batters, and both reached.
“I’m not going to say I was pleased with it, because I wasn’t,” Elder said. “First two innings were good, gotta be better.”
The other starting option was AJ Smith-Shawver, the 20-year-old righty who also made his postseason debut. In a blowout, Smith-Shawver allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings. The Braves also could’ve opted for an opener.
The Braves decided Tuesday that they would start Elder on Wednesday. They told Elder in the afternoon.
“I think we just kind of felt like after the way he threw at the intrasquad and with the layoff, that he was the guy,” Snitker said. “He’s been a starter for us all year. It was a big reason why we won the decision. We liked what we saw.”
The Braves liked the action on Elder’s pitches during that intrasquad game during their layoff between the regular season and the postseason.
Plus, Elder is known as someone with a slow heartbeat. This is something that helps him succeed in big moments.
“He’s an All-Star,” Spencer Strider said of Elder. “When he’s right, he’s one of the best, most effective pitchers in baseball. He’s confident. He’s calm, and I think that this environment is going to bring the best out of him.”
The Phillies started Aaron Nola in Game 3. He was charged with two runs over 5 2/3 innings.
An All-Star this season, Elder finished with a 3.81 ERA. But he had a 5.11 ERA in the second half. Still, he’s provided the Braves with everything, and more, that they could’ve expected.
“I think he’s in a great place,” Strider said before Game 3. “This is the postseason. You can throw your regular-season stats, your law of averages, all that out the window. And I’m analytical, statistical guy, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to win one game, today. And we’ll focus on tomorrow when we get there.
But I couldn’t think of anybody better to hand the ball to. And like I said, we’re focused on just competing as hard as we can and be as confident as we can, and I know that’s what Bryce is going to do.”
All he needed was an opportunity.
As spring training wound down, the Braves optioned Elder. They chose Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd over him. Those two were pitching well, and Elder hadn’t matched them.
But baseball is baseball.
It’s funny how these things go.
Max Fried’s injury on opening day created a rotation vacancy, which Elder took, then held for the entire season. He spent all season in the majors. He perhaps was the Braves’ best starting pitcher before the All-Star break.
In his last six starts of the season, beginning with one Aug. 28, Elder posted a 5.74 ERA. He served up a home run in four of his final five outings of the regular season, including two in one game. In the start in which he didn’t allow a homer, the Cubs tagged him for five runs.
When Charlie Morton sprained his finger in late September, Elder became even more important. Morton’s injury is why the Braves had a decision to make for Wednesday’s Game 3. They most likely would’ve handed the ball to Morton.
Instead, they gave it to Elder. He pitched well for two innings, then fell apart in the third. Snitker’s decision to leave him in didn’t help.
“After going into the third inning, I thought maybe go five,” Snitker said. “He looked like his old self. His stuff was really good. And, no, it just kind of went quick.”
