Elder allowed five hits, walked three and struck out two in the no-decision. 10 of his 18 outs came on grounders, including a double-play ball from Willson Contreras. Elder is due to make his next start in Coors Field, so inducing grounders will be particularly important again. He has a 5.57 ERA through four starts.

It’s borderline surreal to look back at Elder’s success from early in his career when he had a 3.66 ERA over the first 228 innings of his career. Since then, it’s over seven and his struggles were front and center in this start. As a sinker, slider pitcher he doesn’t have a great plan of attack for left-handed batters and routinely floated noncompetitive, subpar changeups to the Twins lefties. The worst of which Trevor Larnach sent into orbit for a 407 foot home run. Yet, the Braves opted for him here over A.J. Smith-Shawver, but that could change soon. Whoever gets that next turn, this spot in the rotation is scheduled to face the Cardinals next time out.

The right-hander struck out four batters in the ballgame and didn’t allow a base on balls. Elder struggled to keep the ball in the yard in this one, serving up a two-run homer to Danny Jansen in the fourth inning and a solo blast to Christopher Morel in the sixth. With Spencer Strider looking increasingly likely to return next week, Elder will probably be relegated back to a long relief role or to the rotation at Triple-A Gwinnett.