Pitching continues to carry Braves

PHOENIX — Pitching continues to be the story in the early stages of the season, and the current road trip, for the Braves.

Grant Holmes’ gem Friday at Chase Field in a 2-0 Braves’ win over the Diamondbacks lengthened the team’s eight-game stretch of solid pitching to start the year. The Braves (6-2) have three shutouts in eight games, something that hadn’t been done by the franchise since 1993.

“I feel like it’s a lot different than last year,” said Holmes, who made one start during the Braves’ 1-7 record through eight games in 2025. “We go out there and try to give it our all. The bullpen’s shut everything down. The starters, we’re doing our part. It’s really nice knowing every day you’re gonna come in, there’s a good chance you’re gonna get five or six innings from each guy. There’s a good chance we’re gonna put you in a pretty good spot to win a ballgame.”

Holmes no-hit the Diamondbacks through 5⅓ innings Friday before giving up a one-out single in the sixth. He got out of that inning with a 4-6-3 double play to complete six scoreless frames.

Holmes, Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and Bryce Elder have now combined to throw 40 innings, strikeout 28 hitters and allow just six earned runs to the tune of a 1.35 ERA. Impressive for a group that was doubted coming out of spring training because of past injuries and inconsistencies.

“Even when we broke camp, I still felt pretty good about our rotation,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Friday. “Maybe it wasn’t the depth that we thought we might have going into the season, but our starting five, I still felt really good about. These guys are throwing the ball really well.”

All five of Atlanta’s starting pitchers, which includes José Suarez — who allowed four earned in 3⅔ against the Athletics on Tuesday — have combined for a 2.06 ERA, which leads the National League. That quintet’s 0.96 WHIP, 10 earned runs and .178 batting average against also lead the NL.

The Braves will hand the ball to Elder on Saturday and hope he can continue the trend of throwing up zeros. Martín Pérez may start Sunday’s game instead of Suarez, but Weiss nor the Braves have officially announced that yet.

The important thing is that whoever is out there falls in line with their pitching fraternity brothers.

“It’s happened since Day 1 for the most part. Pitching’s been really good, bullpen’s been really good,” Weiss said. “It’s about the starting pitching. When you get good starts, the game just tends to fall into place. We’ve been getting good starts since Day 1.”

Not to be overlooked, the Braves’ bullpen — expected to be a strength of the club coming into ’26 — leads the NL in WHIP (0.71), is second in ERA (1.27), is tied for second with four earned runs allowed and is third with a .172 batting average against.