May the 4th was with us.

Austin Riley homered twice and drove in all 4 runs, and Bryce Elder struck out 6 and held the Dodgers to 2 runs in 5+ innings to lead the Braves to the victory.

Riley drove in Alex Verdugo twice, and Pierce Johnson bailed Elder out of a 1st and 3rd, nobody out situation in the 5th, allowing only one run to score on a ground out. Dylan Lee replaced Johnson with one out in the 6th, and promptly allowed pinch hitter Miguel Rojas‘s 1st home run of the season to cut the lead to 4 – 3. Daysbel Hernandez cleaned up that mess.

Los Angeles got the tying run to 3rd in the 9th off Raisel Iglesias. An infield single by Andy Pages was followed by a stolen base by pinch runner Hyeseong Kim, who took 3rd when Drake Baldwin had to throw down to 1st to retire pinch hitter Will Smith, who had struck out. A C-3 PO if you will. However, Iglesias was able to close the game with 2 more strikeouts, leaving Shohei Ohtani on deck.

It’s never comfortable with Elder, and it’s never comfortable with the Dodgers, but it’s the 3rd reasonable start in a row for Bryce. Although he was not able to get through 6 innings this time, considering the competition it was probably his best of the 3.

The Braves salvage a game from the 3 game series; Cincinnati comes to town on Monday at 7:15. AJ Smith-Shawver is scheduled against Brady Singer, and the game will be on MLB network.

Never tell me the odds.