Red-hot Yu Darvish to lead Padres against Braves

San Diego's Yu Darvish will put his scoreless-innings streak on the line Saturday night when the visiting Padres face the Atlanta Braves in the second game of their four-game series.

Darvish (3-1, 2.43 ERA), a veteran right-hander, has made three consecutive scoreless appearances and has worked 18 innings without allowing a run. His mound opponent will be Braves right-hander Bryce Elder (1-1, 4.79).

The Padres won the series opener 3-1 on Friday to end their three-game losing streak.

Darvish has not allowed a run since the fourth inning of his start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 14. Since then, he's thrown five scoreless innings against Cincinnati, five against the Chicago Cubs, and seven against the Dodgers, which matched his longest outing of the season.

"I've always said he's the toughest righty I've ever faced," San Diego second baseman Xander Bogaerts said. "The guy has like seven, eight pitches. ... To me, he's the toughest, with all the pitches he has and different speeds."

In beating the Dodgers on Sunday for his third straight win, Darvish allowed only two hits, one walk and matched his season high with seven strikeouts.

"The plan was to kind of see how they reacted to the pitches. The fastball was coming out of the hand right, it was working nicely," Darvish said after that game. "Obviously they are a very good team, but to be able to take the series against them, for sure it is going to give us some confidence moving forward."

Darvish has made seven career starts against the Braves, going 1-4 with a 5.30 ERA. He hasn't faced them since 2022, when he went 1-0 with a 4.38 ERA in two starts.

Elder will make his fifth start since being recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to fill the spot created by the season-ending injury to ace Spencer Strider. Three of Elder's previous outings have been solid, and he had a nice bounce-back on Sunday when he allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings against the New York Mets. Elder had been ripped for seven runs in 3 1/3 innings by the Dodgers on May 4.

"We want to give the guys a chance to get it done at the plate and leave the bullpen in a situation where we can get it done," Elder said. "As starters, that's kind of what we're trying to do week in, week out."

Elder has made one career start against the Padres, going 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA when he allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings in 2022.

San Diego's Luis Arraez had two hits on Friday and has reached base in 22 straight games, matching his career best. Jurickson Profar had two hits to raise his team-leading batting average to .325.

Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley missed his fourth straight game with left side soreness. It is uncertain whether starting catcher Travis d'Arnaud will be available on Saturday; he left Friday's game with dizziness in the sixth inning. If d'Arnaud is unable to play, it would leave the Braves with only one catcher, Chadwick Tromp, on the roster.