ATLANTA — The Braves host the Guardians on Friday night in a series opener that matches the last two MLB teams yet to lose a series. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. EDT, with Bryce Elder on the mound for Atlanta and Slade Cecconi starting for Cleveland.
The game gives the Braves a chance to keep a hot start rolling behind Elder, who has opened the season with a 98th percentile pitching run value in a small sample. It also puts Cecconi, the 33rd pick in the 2020 draft, in a difficult spot against an Atlanta lineup that could be waiting for Ronald Acuna to break through with his first homer of the season off the right-hander.
That matchup is the draw because the pitching profiles point in opposite directions. Cecconi has thrown his cutter 26% of the time this season, but he also entered 2025 in the 1st percentile in hard-hit rate, the 2nd percentile in average exit velocity and the 3rd percentile in barrel rate. The Braves, meanwhile, are sending out a starter who has looked sharp enough early to turn a best-on-best series into a test of whether the numbers hold up when the calendar turns to April 10.
The tension is simple: Cleveland has stayed unbeaten in series, and Atlanta has done the same, but one of those streaks has to bend by the time this one ends. Cecconi’s pitch mix has changed this year as he leans on a cutter and uses a sweeper instead of a slider, yet the contact numbers suggest the Guardians need far cleaner execution than they have gotten so far if they want to leave Atlanta with the edge.
For the Braves, the game is less about the novelty of the matchup than the chance to keep building around Elder and a lineup that still has room to hit its stride. For the Guardians, it is a chance to show that the early record is not an accident, even with a starter whose 2025 profile leaves little margin for error.
By the end of the night, one of the two teams that have made series wins their early-season calling card will have taken its first loss in that category, and the numbers around Cecconi will be harder to ignore if Atlanta puts the ball in the air the way its lineup has hinted it can.
