Atlanta optioned Elder to Triple-A Gwinnett on Sunday.
He'll return to the minors one day after he took his third loss in as many starts, this time falling to the Rangers. After limiting the Nationals to three earned runs over 5.2 innings en route to capturing the win in his MLB debut April 12, Elder has failed to get out of the fifth inning in each of his subsequent three turns. Over those outings, he's submitted a 4.73 ERA, 1.95 WHIP and most troublingly, an 8:14 K:BB in 13.1 innings. Atlanta will replace him in the rotation with Kyle Muller, who was called up from Triple-A to start Sunday's series finale in Texas.