What one other extremely irritating week for the Atlanta Braves. Heading into the final sport of the Colorado Rockies collection, the Braves had an opportunity to A) sweep the Rockies, B) go 5-1 on their high-altitude highway journey, and C) return to Atlanta by ending April with a .500 file.
They dropped that remaining sport in Denver and headed into their collection towards the Los Angeles Dodgers with an opportunity to show that the sweep the crew suffered by the hands of the Dodgers in LA was a fluke.
As a substitute, the offense that had seemingly discovered its method out of ruts from the season’s first three weeks, bought caught within the mud once more. Fortunately, Atlanta gained the ultimate sport of the Dodgers collection to earn a break up for the week.
The pitching was, in complete, good this week which made selecting this week’s Battery Energy Braves Participant of the Week difficult. So difficult that it, actually, got here all the way down to Sunday Evening’s collection finale towards the Dodgers.
Who had been this week’s candidates?
Eli White has continued to justify his beginning task – and his choice as Battery Energy Participant of the Week final week. Ozzie Albies had a few good video games together with a house run.
On the mound, Grant Holmes rebounded with a pleasant begin towards the Dodgers however was undone by one unhealthy pitch and two hits that traveled not more than 150 ft mixed. Chris Sale seemed him himself towards the Rockies together with his finest begin of the season, however one unhealthy pitch and an offense that really feel asleep on the wheel crashed his hope for selecting up the win.
Pierce Johnson noticed motion in three video games out of the bullpen – putting out 5 batters in 3.1 innings of spotless reduction. Likewise, Daysbel Hernandez had three scoreless outings. Nearer Raisel Iglesias notched two saves in three outings together with wiggling out of a tricky ninth inning jam on Sunday evening.
Towards the Rockies, beginning pitcher Bryce Elder overcame a primary inning three-run house run to place up a high quality begin in Colorado. Sunday evening towards the vaunted Dodgers line-up, he held LA to 2 runs over five-plus innings, together with putting out the aspect to start out the sport.
Nearly as good as Elder was, he and the trio of relievers fell simply wanting the highest spot this week.
Battery Energy Braves Participant of the Week: Austin Riley
This previous week, Austin Riley drew the honour because the Battery Energy Participant of the Month for April 2025. Riley had month – possibly not an excellent month – however took the honour as a lot as a result of his availability early within the season as his total manufacturing. He was having a good sufficient week on the plate this week till Sunday occurred.
After going homer-less in Colorado, the Braves bought a single house run from Albies and Matt Olson within the first two video games of the Dodgers collection. Then Sunday evening, in his first at-bat, Riley deposited the primary pitch from Dodger’s starter Dustin Could into the left-center area seats for a two-run house run.
His subsequent time up, with Alex Verdugo on base as was his first house run, Riley went yard once more for his second house run of the sport. Riley’s 4 RBI would account for all the Braves offense on Sunday evening – which proved to be simply sufficient as Atlanta held on for a 4-3 victory.
For the week, Riley had eight hits – two house runs and a double amongst them – with six RBI. Till Sunday evening, Riley’s offensive efficiency had been quite empty – he had pushed in solely two runs and hadn’t scored – however Sunday’s energy blitz was large for Riley and the Braves as he helped Atlanta avert historical past and keep away from being swept by the Dodgers in a season collection for the primary time in franchise historical past.
For Riley, his second house run was his 161th for his profession which moved him into tenth place all-time in Atlanta Braves historical past and 14th in franchise historical past.
Regardless of the superb bullpen work and two much-needed stable begins from Elder, Riley’s efficiency Sunday evening tilted the scales in his favor for his first Battery Energy Braves Participant of the Week award in 2025.