Tuesday night against the Mets was Bryce Elder's best start of the season

You wouldn't know it from the box score - six innings, four hits, four runs allowed - but Tuesday night in Truist Park, Bryce Elder had his best start of 2023.

"He just kept throwing strikes,” Snitker said after the game. “That’s huge when stuff like that happens and you don’t let it get away from you, because then all of a sudden it can get ugly. But he kept us in the game; we had a lot of at-bats left and had the one big inning. So that was great what he did, as far as getting back on track and holding the game in check.”

The reference to when "stuff like that happens" from Snitker refers to two homeruns, both two runs shots off of hanging sliders, by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in the 3rd inning (which prompted the now infamous "throw it again" comment from Alonso).

I think, overall, I threw the ball well,” Elder said, discussing the outing after the game. “I think when you do kind of get hit around a little for that small stretch, obviously you don’t want that, but to be able to continue to throw it well and give us a chance is always a positive. The walk there between the homers kind of bothers me.”

Elder's referring to a six-pitch walk of Jeff McNeil immediately after the Lindor homer. He had a 3-2 sinker get loose, coming in way above the zone, putting McNeil on 1st for Pete Alonso.

But I agree, Elder did throw the ball well, especially factoring in the opponent difficulty, situation, and how he changed up from his usual attack pattern to be effective on Tuesday night.

Normally an extreme groundball pitcher, thanks to his sinker, Elder instead alternated between strikeouts and fly ball outs, collecting ten flyouts and two line drives to go with only two groundball outs, a season low. He effectively used New York's aggression against them, throwing the slider around the edges of the zone and letting Mets hitters swing and miss (or take it for a strike) before finishing them off with a poor swing (and suboptimal contact) on a sinker.

He finished the game with eight strikeouts, a season high, and drew ten swings and misses ("whiffs") on the slider. When you combine whiffs and called strikes, Elder's slider was 17/35 on drawing strikes without the hitter making contact. A goal for CSW (called strikes plus whiffs) is generally 30% for an entire outing, and Elder not only got 31% for the game, his four-seam fastball - normally one of the worst performing pitches in CSW - was at 28%, while the slider was at 49%.

Bryce Elder, K'ing the Side. pic.twitter.com/DTfC5aWNHx
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 7, 2023

It's a continuation of a breakout season for Elder, who still sits as one of the leaders in the National League for WAR (2nd, with 2.5), ERA (1st, at 2.26), ERA+ (1st, at 197), innings pitched (9th, at 71.2, HRs per nine innings (7th, at 0.753), and Win Probability Added (7th, at 1.4, and 3rd amongst starters).

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