Bryce Elder strikes out four in win over Padres

Elder was spotted six runs of support in Atlanta’s first four innings, but couldn’t qualify for the win after giving up three homers to the Pirates. Elder carries an 8.47 ERA over his last seven starts and the magic appears to be gone for the moment. Mixed leaguers don’t have to roster him through this stretch, though he should continue to get plenty of run support.

That means Bryce Elder will get the ball for one of the final two games of the series with Grant Holmes likely to draw the starting assignment in the other. Elder had his previous start skipped for some extra rest. Waldrep authored a strong performance against the Cardinals last week, allowing three runs over 5 1/3 innings, during his first start of the season. He offers enough strikeout upside to be interesting in deeper fantasy leagues.

Elder will get some additional time off to recover after experiencing some diminished velocity during his last start against the Giants where he allowed five runs over four innings last Saturday. The 27-year-old will be pushed back to next week’s series against the Pirates. It’ll be Grant Holmes taking the ball for Friday’s game against the Mets.

Four runs scored on two homers from Rafael Devers that would have gone out of 17 and 15 ballparks, respectively. While there was little reason to believe in Elder as anything more than a fifth starter coming into the year, his peripherals have remained very solid even during his recent downturn that has lift him 5-6 with a 4.01 ERA. Since he’s in a nice situation in Atlanta, those in deeper mixed leaguers might want to stick with him. He’ll next face the Mets at home.

López has plenty of starting experience and will jump into Atlanta’s rotation mix with Bryce Elder remaining on schedule to take the ball on Saturday with Chris Sale being pushed back to Sunday’s series finale. López is unlikely to work deep enough into the contest to deliver significant fantasy appeal. He holds a solid 3.50 ERA and 39/21 K/BB ratio across 43 2/3 innings this season.

Things went from bad to worse in a calamitous opening frame as Elder coughed up a three-run homer to William Contreras that gave Milwaukee an early 8-0 advantage. The 27-year-old righty somehow managed to settle in afterwards and spare Atlanta’s bullpen from having to shoulder a heavy workload, but the damage was already done. He finished with six strikeouts and handed out two free passes. He’ll attempt to bounce back with a favorable road matchup against the Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday.

Elder allowed two homers and two walks while striking out two. It’s a major regression game, though his ERA still sits at 3.15. The righty introduced a cutter this year that helped him stay ahead of hitters to begin the season, but he has now allowed 16 earned runs over his last four appearances. He had allowed just 15 earned runs all season before this stretch. Things won’t get any easier against the red-hot Brewers next time out.

Elder allowed two hits and two walks in the quality start, lowering his ERA to 2.66 on the year. The right-hander has now given up more than three earned runs in a start just once all season. Elder has been using three fastballs in 2026, adding a cutter while increasing the usage of his four-seamer at the expense of his sinker. Additionally, he’s leading with his slider for the first time in his career. The package is helping him outperform what the pitching models indicate, and he’ll look to keep rolling next time out against the Mets.

Elder gave up six hits, walked one and struck out six. He improved to 5-3 with the win. Elder allowed a two-run home run to Kazuma Okamoto in the second inning, but only allowed one other run. He has a 2.63 ERA. Elder is lined up to face the Pirates on Sunday.

Elder kept the Red Sox off the board for the first three innings despite allowing six runners to reach base over that span. In the fourth, things caught up with him a bit after he allowed a leadoff single to Masataka Yoshida to start the inning and followed that up with a walk to Mickey Gasper. Yoshida would come around to score on a fielding error, which was followed by an RBI single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. Elder would allow two more batters to reach base and runs to score before being pulled. This was easily the worst outing of the season for Elder, who hadn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his previous nine starts. He’ll draw another tough matchup in his next start, which is scheduled for Tuesday against the Blue Jays.