Atlanta @ Colorado preview
Coors Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 5, 2024 ) Colorado 3, Atlanta 1
The Atlanta Braves didn't look like a contender 10 days ago, but they are rolling after winning seven of their past nine games.
Atlanta will take that momentum into Denver against the Colorado Rockies on Monday night. The Braves will send Bryce Elder (0-1, 5.57 ERA) against Colorado's Ryan Feltner (0-1, 3.86) in a matchup of right-handers.
The Braves began the season with a 0-7 record, then climbed to 5-13 before putting together four- and three-game winning streaks to get close to even before losing the finale of a three-game road series to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.
They enter the series against Colorado three games under .500 at 12-15.
Elder is slated to make his fifth start of the season and is coming off his best outing of the year. He averaged five innings in his first three starts of 2025 and allowed 12 runs but bounced back to give up just one run in six innings in a win against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.
He didn't get the win -- Eli White broke a tie with a three-run homer in the eighth to lead the Braves to a 4-1 win -- but he gave the bullpen a breather and kept Atlanta in the game while the bats got going.
"We needed someone to go long there; I was glad to be able to eat some innings and pitch pretty well. I was pretty excited about it," Elder said. "Even though sometimes the offense is slow, I think it's going to be good for us. A little adversity is good. Seeing the guys pick things up and have better at-bats, it's fun to watch."
Elder is 2-0 with a 3.75 ERA in two career starts against the Rockies. One of those outings came in Colorado when he allowed four runs in six innings in a 14-4 win on Aug. 28, 2023.
He faces a Rockies team that has lost six in a row and is 4-23, the worst start in the franchise's 33-year existence. Colorado is coming off a home sweep against Cincinnati and was no-hit for 5 2/3 innings in Sunday in an 8-1 loss.
Colorado has dealt with an injury to its best young player, Ezequiel Tovar, and added infielder Alan Trejo to the 26-man roster after acquiring him from the Texas Rangers on Saturday. Tovar has a hip contusion and is expected back in about a week.
Trejo was drafted by the Rockies in 2017 and made his major league debut for them in 2021. He played 173 games for the club before being designated for assignment last summer.
He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers on a minor league deal for the rest of 2024 and signed as a free agent with Texas in the offseason. He was playing for Triple-A Round Rock.
The 28-year-old Trejo was happy to rejoin the organization.
"I got a couple phone calls (Saturday) from some of the guys here. It's so nice," Trejo said. "You leave a place and you think you'll never see those guys again, and then next thing you know you're getting a phone call that you're coming back and those are the first guys to call you. It means a lot."
He had one of Colorado's three singles on Sunday, and it is Feltner's turn to end the Rockies' losing streak against a team he has never beaten. Feltner is 0-3 with an 11.91 ERA in three career starts against the Braves.
--Field Level Media