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The Braves and Pirates tangled in Grapefruit League action on Wednesday afternoon, and the Braves came away victorious by a 3-1 score, taking advantage of rusty-ish Paul Skenes in the process.
Let’s get the key performances out of the way first.
Bryce Elder was, well, Bryce Elder. Especially the kind of Bryce Elder he appears to be when successful. He struck out three in two innings, walked none, and kept the ball on the lower side of the launch angle spectrum. As a result, the Pirates scratched across a run as a result of a couple of hard-hit singles sandwiching a steal, but there wasn’t much else going on.
Austin Riley unloaded his first Spring Training homer, a gargantuan 419-foot shot off the batters’ eye in center. Earlier in the same plate appearance, he had obliterated another high fastball, but pulled that one just foul. He kept this one (way more) fair.
Riley’s homer actually capped the scoring, as Drake Baldwin led off that frame with a weird triple on a less-routine-than-it-should-have-been fly ball to center, and scored on a Jurickson Profar soft liner down the right-field line. Riley drove Profar in with his moonshot.
Beyond that, the Braves had some fun making Paul Skenes, making his Spring Training 2026 debut, somewhat uncomfortable. They drew four walks against Skenes, who completed 2 1/3 innings — while successfully challenging four of Skenes’ called strikes. (In this game, the Braves went 6-for-6 in successful challenges, while the Pirates whiffed on both of theirs.) They didn’t get more than three runs, though, despite the early walks because Skenes carved up Riley in the first with two on and two out, while Mauricio Dubon and Ronald Acuña Jr. couldn’t get a key hit with two on in the second. (Dubon actually had a hard grounder, but Acuña just popped out. Acuña also later hit into a double play ball by hitting a grounder right at an infielder.)
Other than that, very little happened. The Braves used seven different pitchers in relief of Elder:
- Tyler Kinley: 1/1 K/BB
- Dylan Lee, 1/1 K/BB
- Dylan Dodd, 2/1 K/BB in 1 2/3 IP
- Tyler LaPorte, who struck out the only batter he faced
- Hayden Harris, 2/0 K/BB
- James Karinchak, 2/1 K/BB
- Javy Guerra, on a redemptive note from his prior horrid outing, 1/0 K/BB
Basically, it was a breezy day at the park. The Braves had a collective 9/6 K/BB ratio offensively, while the Pirates were eaten up to the tune of 13/4 by Braves pitching. The Pirates got a runner on in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but a routine flyout ended the game.
Marcell Ozuna went 0-for-2 with a walk (against Dylan Dodd) in his first uniformed game against his erstwhile mates.
The Braves will now head to Tampa to play the Yankees tomorrow afternoon.