Just In: Elder scuffles in Sarasota slugfest, Arcia and Luplow go deep in 7-5 win

After Reynaldo Lopez had an inconsistent outing on Tuesday afternoon, there was maybe an outside chance for Bryce Elder to do… something vis-a-vis his status for the Opening Day roster. As I noted in the game thread, I’m not sure that performance really has much to do with it at this point, given Lopez’ flexibility and the fact that he’s unlikely to get stretched out later. At the same time, I’m not going to pretend that every player is definitively trying to put together a good Spring Training performance, in terms of either surface stats or obvious peripherals, even when engaged in a presumptive position battle. Really, what I’m saying is that I’m not sure Elder was necessarily trying to have a good on-paper outing…

..but boy, all those caveats in the prior paragraph aside, the outing he did have was, on the surface, a giant mess. At least he salvaged it.

Elder started his outing with back-to-back-to-back walks. A forceout at second and a single made it 2-0, and then another single by James McCann made it 3-0. Jarred Kelenic ended up being charged with a throwing error in the process, but it didn’t really matter, because Kolten Wong later connected for a double. After one inning, Elder had an 0/3 K/BB ratio.

If you’re looking for positives, well: (1) Elder didn’t end up allowing a homer; and, (2) he actually bounced back decently well in the next 3 ¹⁄₃ innings. He had a 1-2-3 second, albeit with no strikeouts and one groundout. In the third, Jarred Kelenic somehow got charged with a fielding error in left field in Spring Training — I’m not sure how that happens short of the defensive equivalent of participating in the Battle of Karánsebes, but here we are — and Elder was able to escape the frame with his first strikeout. In the fourth, Elder got both a strikeout and a groundout. He departed after allowing a leadoff single and notching his third and final strikeout in the fifth.

So, an 0/3 K/BB ratio in the first, and a 3/0 K/BB ratio after. He had as many groundouts as flyouts, and only one of his five hits allowed was on a grounder, so it wasn’t really an example of things working the way you expect Elder to function… but there’s also no evidence he was even trying to function that way this time around. Still, it wasn’t exactly the sort of thing to give him a leg up in any sort of competition, but again, there are all those caveats about how it’s far from a given that anything could have provided that leg up, anyway.

On the flip side, Baltimore gave the ball to Cole Irvin, who managed to have a far, far worse time of it than Elder did. After a 1-2-3 first in which he struck out Matt Olson, Irvin’s night unraveled (though, again, it needs to be emphasized that there is no guarantee he was even trying to pitch in a way to keep things well-raveled). A leadoff walk in the second was followed by an Orlando Arcia homer, and a Jordan Luplow longball later in the frame. Then Irvin issued another walk and Michael Harris II doubled, but Eli White was thrown out trying to take third for the final out of the frame.

In the third, Irvin issued another leadoff walk, this time to Ozzie Albies, but got Olson to hit into a double play. However, a Travis d’Arnaud d’Ouble, and Kelenic single made it a 5-4 game, and then Luis Guillorme shot a hard roller the other way for a two-run double. Irvin issued yet another walk in the fourth and was eventually pulled, only for his replacement to immediately walk Olson, but d’Arnaud struck out. The Braves went on to collect another two walks in the game, bringing their total to seven, and pushed across a seventh run when Cal Conley singled in the ninth, bringing home Cody Milligan, who had doubled.

In relief of Elder, Dylan Lee came on and had a nice Spring Training outing for once, going five up, five down with two strikeouts. No word on whether his velocity returned, though. Zach “Epi” Logue had a real strong two frames after, with four punchouts to one walk, and then Parker Dunshee finished up the pitching slate for Atlanta with two strikeouts of his own in the ninth.

The box score for the Braves bats in this one was pretty silly, with nine hits, seven walks, and nine strikeouts to go with the Arcia and Luplow homers. Luplow had a hat trick of strikeouts after his dinger.

The Braves are back at home tomorrow as they host the Rays in North Port.