The Atlanta Braves enter Saturday’s matchup against the San Francisco Giants in a precarious position, sitting at 27–35 and reeling from a five-game losing streak that has raised concerns about their offense, bullpen reliability, and overall consistency. Once considered among the National League’s elite, the Braves have underperformed expectations throughout the last two weeks, with their lineup struggling to drive in runs and their bullpen faltering in late-game scenarios. The offense, which features perennial All-Stars like Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, and Sean Murphy, has averaged just 3.8 runs per game over their last ten contests, a stark drop from their usual output. Despite signs of life—such as back-to-back solo home runs from Murphy and Riley in Friday night’s 4–3 loss—the Braves haven’t been able to string together productive innings with runners in scoring position, often relying too heavily on the long ball. On Saturday, they’ll turn to Bryce Elder on the mound, who brings a 2–3 record with a 4.56 ERA and 1.30 WHIP into the contest. Elder has flashed solid control and soft-contact tendencies but is susceptible to command lapses early in starts, which has placed additional pressure on Atlanta’s bullpen to absorb extended innings.

With the recent addition of veteran Craig Kimbrel back into the bullpen mix, Atlanta hopes to stabilize their late-inning relief corps, but they’ll need a cleaner start-to-finish performance to snap the skid. Defensively, the Braves have been sharp in flashes, but lapses in focus—especially in the middle infield—have cost them key outs, and their inability to turn double plays in high-leverage spots has been an issue during this road trip. Manager Brian Snitker continues to shuffle the batting order and bullpen roles in search of a winning formula, but with the offense stagnant and the bullpen leaking runs, even minor mistakes have snowballed into losses. Atlanta’s key to victory lies in reestablishing control early—if Elder can deliver five or six efficient innings and avoid allowing base traffic in the first few frames, the offense may finally have the breathing room it needs to rediscover its identity. With Logan Webb taking the hill for the Giants, Atlanta will need to be aggressive on first-pitch fastballs and generate offense before falling behind in counts, as Webb excels at dictating tempo and generating groundballs. Atlanta’s best hope may be to flip the script and rely on situational hitting, sacrifice opportunities, and a few timely doubles rather than waiting on home runs. A win on Saturday won’t fix all of Atlanta’s issues, but it would halt the momentum of a dangerous skid, prevent further NL East separation, and reassert the Braves’ ability to beat quality pitching on the road. If the offense can break out of its recent funk and Elder gives them a fighting chance, Atlanta is more than capable of evening the series and showing that their slump is temporary—not structural.