Braves hope for another good Bryce Elder start against Cleveland

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - APRIL 04: Starter Bryce Elder #55 of the Atlanta Braves pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fifth inning at Chase Field on April 04, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks defeated the Braves 2-1. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images) | Getty Images The two team

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The two teams in MLB that are yet to lose a series will face off in Atlanta this weekend, as the Braves host the Guardians.

Bryce Elder will take the mound in game 1 and the Braves hope he can keep up his hot start to the season. He has been getting the job done to the tune of a 98th percentile pitching run value (in a miniscule sample) with a combination of walk avoidance, ground balls, inducing barrels, and quality strikeout numbers, due in no small part to his elite chase%. He has added a cutter

and added substantial depth to his slider, which add some plausible durability to his improved performance, even as it is unlikely that he is suddenly a true talent Cy Young candidate. The Braves will hope he can look like one against this Guardians lineup and contribute to a win in game 1.

On the other side, the Braves’ bats will have to contend with the 33rd pick in the 2020 draft, righty Slade Cecconi. In some ways, Cecconi is similar to Elder, in that he has been sitting in the low-90s with his fastball this season (a tick and a half down from last year) and added a cutter this season. Cecconi has utilized his new cutter much more than Elder though, as it has been his second pitch this season, throwing it 26% of the time. He uses a very slow curve as his breaking ball of choice, but has also swapped his slider for a sweeper this year, which he uses to keep hitters off-balance. Cecconi is not especially good, but gets the job done well enough when he keeps walks down. He doesn’t really miss bats or induce chases though, and he was in the 1st percentile in hard-hit%, 2nd percentile in avg exit velo and 3rd percentile in barrel% in 2025, all with a roughly league average ground ball rate, so to say he can be hit hard would be an understatement. I’ll be looking for the Braves to hammer Cecconi and I’m gonna be bold(ish) and predict that Ronald Acuna finally hits his first homer of the season off of Cecconi.