Late Olson homer lifts Braves over Mariners

The Braves (26-11) improved to 12-1 when their star first baseman homers. They still have not had a losing streak since April 4-6. They will go for an 11th series win in 12 tries in Wednesday’s finale between the two teams.

Tuesday’s victory made the Braves 11-5 when the opponent score first and 20-1 when holding the opposition to three runs or less. It was also their 14th come-from-behind win.

“I think success breeds confidence sometimes, and the fact that we’ve kind of gotten off to the start where we have had some big innings, is going to help you feel that,” Olson said of the Braves’ seemingly always finding a way to win. “I’m sure every team, they do feel like they’re in it and they wanna go out and have a big spark of an inning, but the fact that we’ve been able to have a couple this early on is not always gonna happen. It just kind of breeds confidence.”

Bryce Elder began on the mound for the Braves on Tuesday and had a season-high nine strikeouts. He left after six innings, having thrown 93 pitches and only making one mistake, serving up a two-run homer in the third. Elder got 17 swings and misses at a 35% rate.

Elder, an All-Star in 2023, is off to the best start to a season in his career with a 2.02 ERA and a WHIP of 1.02. Batters are now hitting just .193 against the right-handed Texan.

“I think everybody is chasing consistency and if you could figure out how to be consistent, everybody would play for 10-15 years,” Elder said. “It’s not something that’s easy. I think I have gotten better with it over the years of kind of understanding why I struggled, or why I got in bad counts and everything like that. I think I’m, as far as consistent goes, moving in the right direction. But I don’t know, you never know, it’s one start at a time. The next one could be great, it could be terrible. It is what it is, you just kind of keep rolling.”

His counterpart, George Kirby, went seven strong innings and only faced trouble in the fourth where he allowed his two runs on three hits. Otherwise, he held the Braves to two singles and fanned five.

Those pitching performances left the affair hanging in the balance for the bullpens.

Dylan Lee struck out the side for the Braves in the seventh and Jose Ferrer logged a 1-2-3 eighth for the Mariners (17-20). Braves setup man Robert Suarez (3-0) ended the eighth with two strikeouts, one against Mariners’ star catcher Cal Raleigh.

It was then up to Muñoz (3-3) in the ninth, and Olson was unimpressed.

“He’s some kind of locked-in,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “I talked about comparing him to (2023 right? And that was an unbelievable year he had, but I think, dare I say, it might even be better this year just because he’s shooting balls all over the yard. Doubles in the opposite field gap, homer’s oppo, he’s hitting the ball really hard and it’s line to line. He’s in a special place right now.”

Braves closer Raisel Iglesias, who came off the injured list Tuesday, pitched the ninth. The righty allowed a one-out single and stolen base but got a strikeout and grounder to second to shut the door for his sixth save of the season.

Elder and the Braves had fallen behind early when J.P. Crawford hit a two-run home run to right in the third inning. Elder left a fastball right down the middle of the plate and the left-handed hitting Crawford, the hero of Monday night’s affair with a go-ahead two-run homer, did not miss.

“Yeah man I think, obviously, I didn’t want to give up that (lead-off) walk there to (Mariners catcher Mitch) Garver. I wasn’t real happy about that,” Elder said. “But kind of what we talked about before is like, I’m trying to go six or seven, and obviously I’m not going to every time out, but just kind of keep the game progressing.

“If I give up another solo (home run) or whatever, that’s fine. Just kind of keep us in the game and give us a chance and keep the game progressing. I think that’s kind of what I went to after giving up the homer. Didn’t get in a very good count and then made poor pitch and paid for it. So just kind of gotta keep going.”

As they have done all season long to this point, the Braves responded to a deficit and put up a two-spot in the fourth to tie the game. Mauricio Dubón came through by slapping a two-out, two-run double past the bag at first.

That hit improved Dubón to 7-for-17 with 11 RBIs this season when there are two outs and runners in scoring position. It was all the offense the Braves needed until Olson’s big hit in the ninth.