What another incredibly frustrating week for the Atlanta Braves. Heading into the last game of the Colorado Rockies series, the Braves had a chance to A) sweep the Rockies, B) go 5-1 on their high-altitude road trip, and C) return to Atlanta by ending April with a .500 record.

They dropped that final game in Denver and headed into their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a chance to prove that the sweep the team suffered at the hands of the Dodgers in LA was a fluke.

Instead, the offense that had seemingly found its way out of ruts from the season’s first three weeks, got stuck in the mud again. Thankfully, Atlanta won the final game of the Dodgers series to earn a split for the week.

The pitching was, in total, good this week which made picking this week’s Battery Power Braves Player of the Week challenging. So challenging that it, in fact, came down to Sunday Night’s series finale against the Dodgers.

Who were this week’s candidates?

Eli White has continued to justify his starting assignment – and his selection as Battery Power Player of the Week last week. Ozzie Albies had a couple of nice games including a home run.

On the mound, Grant Holmes rebounded with a nice start against the Dodgers but was undone by one bad pitch and two hits that traveled no more than 150 feet combined. Chris Sale looked him himself against the Rockies with his best start of the season, but one bad pitch and an offense that feel asleep at the wheel crashed his hope for picking up the win.

Pierce Johnson saw action in three games out of the bullpen – striking out five batters in 3.1 innings of spotless relief. Likewise, Daysbel Hernandez had three scoreless outings. Closer Raisel Iglesias notched two saves in three outings including wiggling out of a tough ninth inning jam on Sunday night.

Against the Rockies, starting pitcher Bryce Elder overcame a first inning three-run home run to put up a quality start in Colorado. Sunday night against the vaunted Dodgers line-up, he held LA to two runs over five-plus innings, including striking out the side to start the game.

As good as Elder was, he and the trio of relievers fell just short of the top spot this week.

Battery Power Braves Player of the Week: Austin Riley

This past week, Austin Riley drew the honor as the Battery Power Player of the Month for April 2025. Riley had a good month – maybe not a great month – but took the honor as much due to his availability early in the season as his overall production. He was having a decent enough week at the plate this week until Sunday happened.

After going homer-less in Colorado, the Braves got a single home run from Albies and Matt Olson in the first two games of the Dodgers series. Then Sunday night, in his first at-bat, Riley deposited the first pitch from Dodger’s starter Dustin May into the left-center field seats for a two-run home run.

His next time up, with Alex Verdugo on base as was his first home run, Riley went yard again for his second home run of the game. Riley’s four RBI would account for all of the Braves offense on Sunday night – which proved to be just enough as Atlanta held on for a 4-3 victory.

For the week, Riley had eight hits – two home runs and a double amongst them – with six RBI. Until Sunday night, Riley’s offensive performance had been rather empty – he had driven in only two runs and hadn’t scored – but Sunday’s power blitz was big for Riley and the Braves as he helped Atlanta avert history and avoid being swept by the Dodgers in a season series for the first time in franchise history.

For Riley, his second home run was his 161th for his career which moved him into tenth place all-time in Atlanta Braves history and 14th in franchise history.

Despite the excellent bullpen work and two much-needed solid starts from Elder, Riley’s performance Sunday night tilted the scales in his favor for his first Battery Power Braves Player of the Week award in 2025.