2024 has been a whirlwind of a season, and Max Fried has definitely felt it too. In what could possibly be his final season in Atlanta, the southpaw had an unthinkably dangerous begin to the yr, then acquired again on his horse, then acquired damage warming up for the All-Star Sport, after which suffered a string of actually irritating begins. All of that introduced him and the Braves to tonight, in fairly near a must-win scenario, and Fried delivered, after which some. If that is Fried’s ultimate begin as a Courageous in Atlanta, he made it a terrific one, practically throwing a Maddux to assist the Braves coast to a 3-0 win over the Royals.
Fried completed with a 9/2 Ok/BB ratio in 8 2⁄3 scoreless innings, however that doesn’t actually inform a lot of the story. This wasn’t a laborious 8 2⁄3 with high-stress pitches in an in depth sport; this was Max Fried, with practically complete command of his stuff, bamboozling the Royals left and proper. It took Fried simply 36 pitches to get by means of his first 9 batters, after which he had a seven-pitch fourth that included an infield single and ended on a pickoff. His blip of a four-pitch stroll to Yuli Gurriel within the fifth was a part of a ten-pitch inning (together with the stroll), after which the subsequent inning solely featured eight Fried pitches. Within the seventh, he allowed a one-out double, besides, it was simply an 11-pitch inning. Within the eighth, he acquired two trying strikeouts in a nine-pitch effort. Critically, it was loopy.
Within the ninth, a Maddux was simply inside attain… however Fried didn’t fairly get throughout the end line. It took him 9 pitches to get the primary two outs, and he had loads of wiggle room… however up got here Bobby Witt Jr., who drew a five-pitch stroll. Up got here Michael Massey, who has been terrible towards lefties however doubled earlier within the sport, and he hit Fried’s 98th and ultimate pitch of the evening into proper for a double that introduced the tying run to the plate and knocked Fried out of the sport.
Raisel Iglesias trotted out of the bullpen and had in all probability probably the most anticlimactic appearances of his profession, throwing actually a single pitch to Salvador Perez. The Kansas Metropolis backstop hit a generic lineout to left, and although Fried gained’t add one other Maddux to his tally, the Braves ended up ending the sport with a 99-pitch shutout.
It’s exhausting to say too many good issues about Fried tonight. He collected 5 strikeouts the primary time by means of — two on the sweeper, two on the curve, one on a sinker. He then largely shifted to his typical pitch-to-contact mode, earlier than placing out three of 4 at one level. That is the Fried the Braves needed to offer at the very least another shot within the playoffs, and so they got here a bit nearer to having that likelihood together with his effort tonight.
However, you’ll be able to’t win a baseball sport simply by Madduxing the opposite staff. You additionally want to attain a run someplace. Fortuitously for the Braves, they scored three. They drew two walks towards Brady Singer within the first (each drawn by lefty batters), however Jorge Soler struck out to finish that body. Within the fourth, Soler singled by means of the left aspect, and Sean Murphy acquired a really dangerous hanging 0-2 sweeper from Singer and mashed it into left area for a laser of a two-run homer. The Braves tried to get extra off Singer the third time by means of, within the sixth, as Soler drew a one-out stroll and Ramon Laureano barreled a ball into left-center for a double, however Singer eviscerated each Murphy and Gio Urshela with 0-2 breaking pitches method off the plate.
The Braves acquired their third run in bizarro, “What the hell am I watching?” vogue. Carlos Hernandez, in his second inning of labor relieving Singer, issued a leadoff stroll to Marcell Ozuna, who moved to second on a gradual groundout. With Laureano on the dish, Ozuna took off for third base (?!), drawing a horrendous throw from Perez that was airmailed into left area. Ozuna simply scampered dwelling after which had a raucous time within the dugout, as his teammates principally threw him an impromptu get together for stealing his first base of the yr.
However, that apart, it was principally the Max Fried present tonight, and with the Mets dropping in Milwaukee on the time of writing, the percentages at the moment are higher that he’ll have one other likelihood to make his staff proud earlier than he hits the free agent market.
