Arizona Diamondbacks at Atlanta Braves

Michael Soroka pitching at Truist Park always carries a little extra weight — this is the building where he broke in as a first-round pick and turned into a 17-8 arm across four injury-shortened seasons before bouncing to three other organizations. He came in Sunday at 8-3 with a 2.96 ERA, fresh off a clean return from the injured list, and the Diamondbacks needed one more good outing from him to finish off a sweep of his old team.

Bryce Elder had other ideas. Atlanta's righty had been rocked for 7 earned runs in his last outing against the Mets, but he steadied things against Arizona, working into the 7th and keeping the lineup that had put up 2 and then 10 runs in the first two games of this set mostly quiet. Both bullpens came in beat up — Arizona without Justin Martinez, Ryan Thompson and A.J. Puk, Atlanta missing Robert Suarez and Reynaldo Lopez — which made every extra inning either starter could give that much more valuable.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
ARI	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	3	6	0
ATL	0	0	1	0	1	0	3	0	—	5	8	0

It stayed a tight, low-scoring game deep into the afternoon, with neither offense finding much traction against a pair of arms operating near their ceilings under a 95-degree Atlanta sun.

Gabriel Moreno cracked a solo shot for Arizona in the 4th to open the scoring, and the Diamondbacks looked like they had the formula working again. Then the 7th flipped everything: Atlanta strung together a 3-run inning capped by Olson going deep to center, and even though Ildemaro Vargas answered with a solo homer of his own to make it a one-run night, the damage was done. Atlanta's bullpen closed it out from there for a 5-3 win.

For Arizona, the loss doesn't erase what was a strong weekend — 2 wins in the first 2 games of the series, with Soroka giving them length and their lineup finally clicking against a Braves pitching staff that had been vulnerable all month. For Atlanta, avoiding the sweep matters more than the box score suggests given how thin the pitching depth chart has gotten, with Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach both still on extended rehab timelines.

Both clubs move on with real questions in the pitching room. Arizona's rotation is missing Zac Gallen, Corbin Burnes and Ryne Nelson, all working back from elbow issues, which is a lot of firepower to replace even with Soroka pitching like an ace. Atlanta got the split it needed to avoid a series sweep, but a bullpen already down two key arms doesn't get any healthier by winning one game.

Sources