Bryce Elder set to make debut as Braves look to bounce back against Nationals

After receiving a severe beatdown in the series opener against the Nationals, the Braves are back in action as they look to get even with Washington in this series. Additionally, Atlanta will be sending a pitcher to the mound who will be making his major league debut in tonight’s game.

That man is Bryce Elder, who is getting the spot start after today’s originally scheduled starter Tucker Davidson came in for relief last night following a bad outing from Huascar Ynoa. As Garrett Spain noted in his introductory piece on Bryce Elder, the main reason why Elder got the nod instead of, say, Touki Toussaint or Kyle Muller is that the Braves are currently in a position where they need someone to eat some innings and they also wanted Max Fried to get an extra day of rest here in the early stages of the season. So Elder seemed like the best choice in the eyes of the front office here and now he’ll be making his debut against the Nationals tonight.

Meanwhile, Patrick Corbin will be getting the ball for Washington this evening and as far as Corbin is concerned, he can only go up from how he fared against the Braves last season. The Braves faced Corbin three times last season and they got the better of him every all three times. On June 3, the Braves got him for four runs with Dansby Swanson contributing a home run. Just over two months later on August 8, Atlanta scored five runs off of Corbin with Ozzie Albies going deep. Six days later, the Braves tacked on six runs against Corbin and Albies went off with a triple and another home run. The Braves had Patrick Corbin figured out last season and Corbin is coming off of an Opening Day start against the Mets where he looked pretty shaky. While I’m not saying that you should expect the Braves to go off on Corbin once again, I would say that it would be a tiny bit disappointing if they had another quiet night at the plate tonight.

The Braves took a really nasty loss last night and now they’ve got a decent opportunity to make up for it. Bryce Elder in particular has a chance to really show what he can do. The back of the rotation has had a rough start to the extremely early part of this season and maybe Elder can stick around for a bit if he can put a stop to that rough start with a good outing tonight. Here’s hoping that tonight’s game isn’t as much of a slog as last night’s was!

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Tuesday, April 12, 7:20 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: Bally Sports Southeast

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan