Braves Briefing: Ronald Acuña didn't miss any extra time

All Braves fans took a collective sigh of relief when Atlanta put out their lineup for Tuesday night's game against the Miami Marlins and Ronald Acuña's name was on there.

While he only had one hit, he had an RBI and a stolen base. He's up to 14 stolen bases on the season, which leads all of MLB.

AJ Smith-Shawver has been promoted to AA Mississippi

Braves Today's Lindsay Crosby was all over the news yesterday regarding the promotion of AJ Smith-Shawver.

Smith-Shawver, a 7th round pick out of high school in the 2021 MLB Draft, is considered by many outlets to be the #1 prospect in the Atlanta Braves system. On the 2023 season, he's made three starts for Rome, pitching fourteen innings with six hits, four walks, and twenty-three strikeouts. He's striking out 44% of batters faced on the season with a 37% strikeout-to-walk rate.
The righthander's commonly referred to as a "Spencer Strider starter kit", as he features two elite-quality pitches in his fastball and slider. The fastball, which averages 96 and has touched 99 this season, has both fantastic carry up in the zone and can cut or run at times, making it difficult for opposing hitters to square up. He pairs that with a traditional, two-plane break slider in the upper-80s that features late dive below the strike zone. His third pitch, similar to Strider's, is a changeup, but it's still a work in progress and sits in the same velocity band as the slider.

READ: Top pitching prospect AJ Smith-Shawver promoted to AA Mississippi

NL East Standings

Team	Record	GB	Action Today
Atlanta	20-10	-	@ Miami
NYM	16-13	3.5	@ Detroit
Miami	16-14	4.0	Hosts Atlanta
Philadelphia	15-16	5.5	@ LAD
Washington	11-18	8.5	Hosts CHC

We wrote it

Will Moon covered Tuesday night's action for Braves Today. The biggest story from the Atlanta win? Bryce Elder. Here's what Moon said in our takeaways.

The star of the show tonight was Bryce Elder, who was paired up against reigning NL Cy Young Award-winner Sandy Alcantara for the second time in as many starts tonight. Atlanta won the first meeting between the two, but Alcantara had the better outing last week. The Braves got the win again tonight, but this time Elder solidly outpitched his opposite number.

The Bryce is right 🔥#ForTheA pic.twitter.com/jGdj3rgRGR
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 3, 2023

Left off that graphic was arguably the most important stat - pitch count. While Alcantara labored against the Atlanta offense, firing 103 pitches through his five innings of work, Elder was highly efficient, cruising through seven shutout innings in 96 pitches. He issued no walks, and the Marlins only mustered four baserunners against him (three singles and an error, with one of the singles cut down trying to stretch to a double). Bryce has pitched against Miami a hilarious number of times in his young career (six of his fifteen career starts have come against the Fish), but that familiarity did nothing for the opposing offense tonight, who just couldn't get anything going: Elder only allowed one man to reach second, and that came on a balk, with the inning ending immediately afterward.

Watch Atlanta Braves Highlights

How to watch the Atlanta Braves vs the Miami Marlins

First pitch tonight will be at 6:40 ET. Kyle Wright looks to get the start for the Braves, while the Marlins counter with southpaw Braxton Garrett. This is a rematch of the starters from the game last Thursday afternoon, though neither player factored much into the outcome of that contest as Atlanta's bullpen blew a save in the ninth, with Miami scoring three to come back and avoid a sweep.

The broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports South and on MLB.TV outside of the broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.