Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder, once again, sparkled. But he would leave the ballpark wanting at least one pitch back after Saturday’s outing.
Elder had a 2-1 lead with two outs in the eighth inning when Willson Contreras golfed a 1-2 slider 426 feet into the seats in left field, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead. The visitors then held on to that lead over the final two Braves at-bats to take the middle game of a three-game series at Truist Park.
“I was happy with how I threw the ball overall. Obviously, that one pitch there at the end kind of hurts,” Elder said. “I didn’t think my stuff was particularly good tonight, so to be able to kind of grind through some stuff and get eight, I was happy with that.
“I don’t know the location on that last pitch. It just wasn’t my best slider, and that’s what you expect somebody to do when you make a poor pitch. So kind of sucks, but overall to go eight, I can’t be too upset about that other than that one pitch.”
The right-handed Elder (4-2) gave up seven hits and three runs over eight innings. He threw 103 pitches (72 of which were strikes), induced 14 groundouts and threw 22 first-pitch strikes out of the 32 batters he faced.
Elder nearly gave the Braves the lead through 7½ innings. A two-out double to left by Wilyer Abreu in the eighth, however, brought the veteran hitter Contreras to the plate. He shocked the near 40,000 in attendance by turning the tide of the game on one pitch.
Braves manager Walt Weiss was working with a thin bullpen Saturday, he said. Five relievers pitched in Friday’s extra-inning win, including the Braves’ top three relief arms.
“Going back out for the eighth, once (Elder) got the first two guys out - he got two quick outs - he was going to go through Contreras,” Weiss said. “Now, if one guy got on with one out and then (Wilyer) Abreu comes up, that’s where Martin (Pérez) is coming in the game. But once (Elder) got the first two outs, and his pitch count was still OK, once he got the first two outs, he’s going to go through Contreras.
“Just unfortunate that the ball left the yard. Bryce was still throwing the ball well, pitch count was still OK. Didn’t have his best slider tonight, but even the ball that Contreras hit out was below the (strike) zone.”
Drake Baldwin, for the second night in a row, put the Braves (31-15) on the board first with a home run in the Braves’ first at-bat. In the designated hitter spot, Baldwin whacked a 95-mph sinker over the center field wall off Red Sox starter Payton Tolle.
It was Baldwin’s second career lead-off homer and 13th long ball of the season.
“I mean, you got a guy who has good stuff on the mound. You’re just kind of trying to put a best swing on a ball early and try to kind of keyhole him into a spot that you think you can do damage with,” Baldwin said. “So, got a pitch there and glad I hit it out.”
After allowing a lead-off double to start the game, Elder then retired nine in a row before giving up back-to-back singles to begin the fourth. Contreras rolled over a slider for what should have been a double-play ball to third, but Austin Riley dropped it, giving the Red Sox (19-26) the bases loaded with nobody out.
Masatake Yoshida lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-all.
Elder wouldn’t give up another run until the Contreras homer in the eighth, despite only recording three strikeouts and having four balls hit off the bat more than 100 mph and 11 others leave the wood at more than 90 mph.
“I just think you notice stuff one night, they may be getting some more swings and misses. (The Red Sox) put stuff in play, so the benefit of that is if location is good, you can kind of eat some innings,” Elder said. “So that’s kind of what happened tonight.”
Baldwin struck again in the fifth with an RBI single to left that scored José Azócar — who had doubled for the second time in as many at-bats — and gave the Braves a 2-1 lead. It was Baldwin’s 36th RBI of the season.
Tolle (2-2), meanwhile, went eight strong and only allowed four hits (two to Baldwin and Azócar each). He walked one, struck out three and threw just 85 pitches.
Aroldis Chapman worked around a two-out error, stolen base and two walks in the ninth for his 10th save of the season. Ha-Seong Kim lined a two-strike fastball off Chapman’s leg that Chapman eventually found along the first-base line before throwing to first for the final out.
“We only scored two runs. We needed to score some more runs tonight,” Weiss said. “We made some noise there in the ninth, but just didn’t score enough runs.”
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