Missed chances early doom Braves in another loss, but at least they maybe won a trade

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TAMPA — Spencer Strider returns to the Atlanta Braves this week and not a minute too soon. Their starting rotation, as constituted, doesn’t seem equipped to reel off three or four good starts in a row, much less the kind of run it might take to help their offensively challenged team put together a decent winning streak.

Bryce Elder did not figure to be in Atlanta’s rotation when the Braves reported to spring training, but there he was Friday, making his second consecutive start since Reynaldo López went on the injured list and had arthroscopic shoulder surgery that will likely keep him out for at least four months.

Elder gave up five runs and nine hits, including a pair of home runs, in six innings of the Braves’ 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in a series opener at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring-training park. The Rays are playing there because the roof of their Tropicana Field was ripped apart during Hurricane Milton in November.

The Braves had only one run and trailed by four Friday before Marcell Ozuna and Ozzie Albies hit eighth-inning solo homers off reliever Edwin Uceta, who has a 7.94 ERA and 1.074 opponents’ OPS in seven appearances. The Braves are 3-10, tied with the Chicago White Sox for the worst record in the majors.

Ozuna has homered in consecutive games and leads the majors in walks (16) and on-base percentage (.509). Austin Riley has four consecutive multi-hit games after struggling mightily during the 1-8 start. But there hasn’t been much else to recommend of the Braves’ offense, which has scored fewer runs (41) than any team except Colorado (40) and ranks 28th with a .180 average with runners in scoring position and 29th with a .561 OPS in those situations.

“Situational hitting, I think, is number one,” Riley said of the Braves’ offensive issues. “And just being able to pass that baton to that next guy. Hitting is contagious. Putting up good at-bats, passing it on to the next guy. … There’s some positives there, but right now the negatives are definitely outweighing it. And we just got to continue to fight it.”

The Braves could have used one of those homers, or any other hit, after loading the bases with one out in the first inning, when they had a 1-0 lead and a chance to do major damage to Rays starter Taj Bradley. Instead, Bradley struck out Bryan De La Cruz and Jarred Kelenic to leave the bases full. It turned out to be a critical part of the game.

On the board in the first!#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/FeHCw7VJiD

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 11, 2025

“Yeah, absolutely,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I mean, it makes it a different ballgame. I think he threw 31, 32 pitches (in the first inning) and then had 50-something in five innings after that. It’s tough when you get him on the ropes like that and can’t — we just can’t seem to pierce a gap when we get those situations.”

Riley, who singled for the first hit of the inning, scored on Matt Olson’s single two batters later, before Albies walked to load the bases.

“You just got to capitalize on stuff,” Riley said. “Bases loaded, one out, got to be able to get a run across there.”

AJ Smith-Shawver will bring an 0-2 record and 5.19 ERA into his Saturday start for the Braves. Even reigning Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, who starts Sunday’s series finale, has been underwhelming with a 6.75 ERA in three starts.

The Braves’ best two starters have been Spencer Schwellenbach and Grant Holmes, and it was only a month ago when Holmes was widely assumed to be a candidate to move to long relief after Strider returned.

Nobody is assuming that for the foreseeable future. Not since Ian Anderson struggled and was traded late in spring training, and Smith-Shawver continued the inconsistency of his previous big-league stints, and López got hurt and Sale began to look mortal instead of the lefty slinger who put the team on his back last season.

The Braves lost their other lefty ace, Max Fried, to free agency along with aging Charlie Morton. They didn’t sign or trade for any other proven starter to replace them. Right now, that lack of offseason activity is not looking too good.

Schwellenbach has been the one Braves starter who’s met or exceeded expectations again. He’s been sensational, leading major-league qualifiers with his 0.45 ERA in three starts, though he only has one decision (a win) because of a lack of run support from a team that ranks in the bottom third of the majors in most offensive categories.

After the Braves mustered a single run in the first inning Friday, the Rays tied the score with a sacrifice fly in the third inning and took the lead on Danny Jansen’s two-run homer in the fourth inning on a first-pitch sinker that Elder left over the plate and up.

The Braves will hope for a big boost from the powerful right arm of Strider, who had 13 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in his third rehab start Thursday for Triple-A Gwinnett. Now, twelve months after internal-brace elbow surgery to repair a damaged UCL in his pitching elbow, he’s expected to come off the IL and start Wednesday’s finale of a three-game series at Toronto.

Until the Spencers pitch in what’s expected to be consecutive starts Tuesday and Wednesday, Snitker can only wait for the offense to start clicking and hope other starters, along with a bullpen that’s still a work in progress, can come together and help get the Braves going in the right direction.

Rafael Montero for… whom?

The Braves like the early returns on their recent trade for veteran reliever Rafael Montero, who made his team debut Thursday and had two strikeouts in the scoreless 10th inning before the Braves won on Ozuna’s walk-off two-run homer in the 11th.

Montero induced a leadoff groundout from Kyle Schwarber and struck out Trea Turner. After intentionally walking Bryce Harper, he struck out Nick Castellanos to keep the score 1-1. Montero displayed his three-pitch mix of 93-95 mph fastball, slider and a splitter that’s been a difference-maker since he added it to his repertoire after being sent to Triple A last summer.

Rafael Montero had a career-best season in 2022, posting a 2.37 ERA with five wins and 14 saves in 71 regular-season appearances. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

“Really good,” Snitker said of Montero’s first appearance since being traded Tuesday from the Houston Astros, who got a player to be named later and sent cash to the Braves to cover all but $3 million of Montero’s $11.5 million salary. “I mean, it was huge. You always kind of like when you get a new guy that they can do something to help the club. … Hopefully he can become a big part of our bullpen.”

The player-to-be-named was named Friday — reliever Patrick Halligan, 25, who has a 4.39 ERA in 107 games over five minor-league seasons, with 218 strikeouts and 78 walks in 209 innings.

If Montero pitches like he did Thursday, it’ll be a case of the Braves taking advantage of the Astros’ desire to cut ties with Montero, since Atlanta gave up a pitcher who wasn’t part of their plans and acquired a potential high-leverage reliever for $3 million.

“He’s been a guy, yeah,” Snitker said, using baseball parlance for a big-impact performer. “He’s had that experience at the back end of a bullpen. And I could tell, too, when he got that last out of the inning. I mean, he was jacked up.”

Montero had a career-best season in 2022, posting a 2.37 ERA with five wins and 14 saves in 71 regular-season appearances, striking out 73 with 23 walks in 68 1/3 innings. Then he pitched in 10 more games that year in the postseason, including four World Series appearances in the Astros’ series win over the Phillies.

He slipped to a 4.94 ERA in 109 appearances during the 2023-2024 seasons and allowed three hits, two runs and two walks in four innings during three appearances this season with the Astros before the trade.

“(Heard) a lot of good things, talking to the guys with the Astros,” said Snitker, whose son, Troy, is an Astros hitting coach. “I think they hated to lose him. They were telling me that he was throwing good. Adding the split has really helped him. So, hopefully, like I say, I’d love for him to step in here and be a guy for us.”

(Top photo of Bryce Elder: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)

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