Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider wasn’t looking for a feel-good moment. He wanted a win.

Strider allowed two runs and five hits in five-plus innings in his return to the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon, but the Braves lost 3-1 to fall eight games below .500 at 5-13.

“My job isn’t to come back and have a moment and all that,” Strider said. “That’s not how I look at it. I’m here to help the team.”

Making his first big league appearance in 376 days because of surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Strider struck out five, walked one and hit a batter. He threw 97 pitches, 58 for strikes.

“He’s extremely important to our club and especially to our rotation,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s good to have him back.”

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had two of the five hits off Strider, including an RBI single in the third inning and a solo home run in the sixth. The homer was Guerrero’s first.

Strider got ahead 0-2 with his first two pitches of the at-bat but couldn’t finish Guerrero off with any of his next five. Guerrero homered into the second deck on a full-count slider, a 412-foot drive.

“For me, didn’t do a good job of executing with two strikes,” Strider said. “Felt like my off-speed didn’t have a lot of conviction, a lot of consistency. That makes it hard to pitch.”

Kershaw returns

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw threw three scoreless innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City in his first rehab start as the 37-year-old left-hander tries to work his way back from offseason surgeries on his toe and knee.

Kershaw allowed two hits without a walk and struck out two in the game against Tacoma.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner has dealt with a variety of health issues in recent years, and he hasn’t thrown more than 132 innings in a season since 2019. He didn’t pitch until July 25 last year after undergoing shoulder surgery, and he went just 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in seven starts before he was shut down Aug. 30.

The 10-time All-Star is 212-94 with a 2.50 ERA, and he was the NL MVP in 2014, when he went 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA.

Pirates: Bricks coming

Pirates president Travis Williams announced that the team is working on a new permanent display for the commemorative bricks originally purchased by fans when PNC Park opened in 2001.

The bricks have been replaced multiple times through the years due to wear. The team pulled up the bricks during the offseason as part of maintenance work around the stadium but they were not replaced ahead of the season opener earlier this month.

Williams wrote an open letter to fans offering anyone who donated to the program when it began a free commemorative copy of their brick. Williams also said the team is working on a new display for the new batch of bricks that will include their original messages.