Bryce Elder threw six strong innings in a 6-2 win over the Nationals on Friday, then said the Braves already have the pieces to make a run.
The Braves kept rolling at Truist Park on Friday night, beating the Nationals 6-2 behind six solid innings from Bryce Elder and a three-run homer from Michael Harris II.
The win was Atlanta's third in a row, and it came with Monday's trade deadline feeling a lot less urgent than it did a month ago.
The Braves sit at 65-45 with an eight-game lead over the Phillies in the National League East, and the way this stretch is going, the most important additions before Monday might already be in the building.
A Clean Night
Matt Olson opened the scoring in the first with a solo homer to right, his 29th of the season, and Jim Jarvis singled home Mauricio Dubon in the second to make it 2-0.
CJ Abrams answered with a solo shot in the fourth, but that was the only run Washington got off Elder, who scattered four hits over six innings and improved to 7-6 with a 3.84 ERA.
Atlanta broke the game open in the sixth when Harris lined a three-run homer to right and Jarvis added another run-scoring single to stretch the lead to 6-1.
Jarvis finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs, while Elieser Hernandez worked the last three innings for the save.
Why Monday Feels Simpler
Elder spoke afterward like a pitcher who knows what his team has.
"I think we can roll with the guys we have right now and make a run at it," he told reporters postgame.
It is hard to argue with him.
The rotation help everyone assumed Atlanta would chase in July may simply be Spencer Schwellenbach, who is taking real steps toward a return, and the biggest bat available anywhere is Ronald Acuna Jr., who is back in the lineup after his June hamstring strain and still looking for his timing.
A front office watching its team win like this has very little reason to pay deadline prices for someone else's rental.
That is the luxury of a big lead.
Teams that trail get pushed into overpaying for help at the deadline, while teams in Atlanta's position get to be honest about what they actually need, and the honest answer right now is not much.
Elder saying it plainly only confirms what the last three games already showed.
Harris Keeps Making His Case
The bigger story might be Harris, who is hitting .292 with 20 home runs, already matching his total from all of last season.
Walt Weiss said after the game that Harris is turning into one of the frontline players in the sport, and the manager said something similar about Olson earlier this week.
When the biggest bats are producing like this while the lead keeps growing, the deadline becomes about small touches instead of big swings, and the players seem to sense it too.
Atlanta gets two more against Washington this weekend, takes Monday off while the rest of the league scrambles, and opens with Miami on Tuesday.
The healthiest thing about this team right now is that nothing about that schedule feels scary, and that calm is worth more than any deadline splash.
