MIAMI — Under normal circumstances, Max Fried might’ve been thinking more about having matched Steve Avery for the fifth-most wins by a left-hander in Atlanta Braves franchise history.
But these aren’t normal circumstances, and Fried was focused Saturday solely on the importance of doing what he could to help ensure the Braves beat the Marlins, since they can’t afford to lose many more games, if any, and have much hope of advancing to a seventh consecutive postseason.
They won a game they were supposed to win Saturday, 6-2, with Fried pitching six strong innings and Matt Olson and Gio Urshela each hitting a two-run homer in a four-run seventh inning of a game tied after six. It was Fried’s 10th win this season and 72nd of his eight-year career, all with the Braves.
“It’s the time of the year where we’re at, I really only had two starts left, so you’ve just got to dig deep,” Fried said, “and every ounce of what I had today, I wanted to make sure I left it out there.”
The Marlins scored a run in the first inning on consecutive two-out hits before Fried retired 11 consecutive batters. He wasn’t scored on again until an unearned Marlins run in the sixth inning, and the Braves’ four-run seventh lifted him to a place alongside Avery.
Fried’s average four-seam fastball velocity of 93.8 on Saturday was 1.1 mph higher than his season average, and he threw as many curveballs (28) as fastballs. He also threw 20 changeups, a pitch particularly effective after the first inning.
Max Fried, Nasty Changeups. 👌👌 pic.twitter.com/6CzOuicFgc
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 21, 2024
“That’s what he does,” Olson said of Fried’s in-game adjustments. “Being able to mix it up and adjust to guys; he’s not a one-trick pony by any means. He’s able to read swings and see what they’re trying to do, and kind of counter it. Which you’d feel like everybody would be able to do, but it’s just not the case. He’s a true pitcher in that sense.”
Avery got 72 wins in 203 games for the Braves including 201 starts, while Fried got his 72nd win in his 167th game and 150th start for Atlanta. He was charged with five hits and two runs (one earned) on Saturday and had one walk with six strikeouts.
“Obviously it’s extremely special and humbling,” said Fried, in his sixth season as a full-time MLB starter. “I guess I’m too in it right now to give you some true perspective. Steve Avery was an unbelievable pitcher and he did a lot of incredible things for this organization. So to be in the conversation with him, it’s an honor.”
The Braves haven’t signed Fried to an extension and he would be a free agent the week after the World Series.
Atlanta remained two games behind the New York Mets for the third and final NL wild-card spot, with only seven games left in the season including a three-game series against the Mets that starts Tuesday in Atlanta. Fried would be on regular rest in the series finale Thursday against the Mets, which could be his last start for the Braves if they don’t advance to the postseason.
He’s pitched for them in each of the past six postseasons.
“He’s been really good for his time here, that’s for sure,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He burst on the scene here when he was a kid. I’ve had a really cool seat watching Max mature and come into being one of the elite left-handed pitchers in our game.”
Sale, López updates
Snitker said the Braves are still discussing whether to have Chris Sale make two starts Tuesday and Sunday on regular rest in the final week of the season, or give the presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner extra rest before his next start, which would effectively make it his last start of the regular season.
Meanwhile, Reynaldo López seems unlikely to pitch again during the regular season. He’s on the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation after pitching one inning in his last start on Sept. 10 and leaving with shoulder inflammation. He did some light throwing for the first time since that game on Friday, and ramped it up a bit with long-tossing Saturday, Snitker said.
The Braves presumably could have López back for the postseason if they advance, either for a wild-card series or a division series.
As for Sale, the discussion concerning the veteran ace’s status stems from his most recent start Thursday at Cincinnati, when his average four-seam velocity was 92.7, down 2.1 mph from his season average. The average velocities of Sale’s sinker and vaunted slider were also more than 1 mph below his season averages.
Asked Saturday if he got the sense that Sale might be a little tired, Snitker said, “No, I don’t get any sense about him. He’s fine.”
Sale still limited the Reds to five hits and two runs with two walks in five innings of a 15-3 Braves rout, picking up his MLB-leading and career-high 18th win in 21 decisions and raising his majors-leading strikeout total to 225 in 177 2/3 innings.
Chris Sale goes back to the well with the slider for the K 🤮 pic.twitter.com/92GCOPpnxM
— MLB (@MLB) September 19, 2024
He also leads major-league qualifiers with his 2.38 ERA and could become just the third MLB pitching triple-crown winner this century, after Shane Bieber in 2020 and Johan Santana in 2006. The last to accomplish the feat before that was Dwight Gooden in 1985.
But it’s also the first time Sale has thrown as many as 150 innings since 2018, and his highest total since he led the majors with 214 1/3 innings in 32 starts in 2017, which was the last time he made more than 27 starts before this season’s 29.
In other words, the Braves must be cognizant of the workload for the 35-year-old, who’s avoided the kind of injuries that plagued him during each of the past five seasons.
Do they use him twice in the final week — in Tuesday’s series opener against the Mets and the season finale Sunday vs. Kansas City — to give themselves a better chance of catching the Mets and securing the third and final wild-card slot? Or use Sale once — Wednesday or Thursday against the Mets — if they think they can earn a wild-card berth, then have Sale ready to start a Wild Card Series opener?
(If he pitches twice in the last week, he wouldn’t be available to start in a best-of-three Wild Card Series.)
Even if the Braves lose Fried to free agency, they could have a formidable 2025 rotation led by Sale, Spencer Strider coming off elbow surgery that limited him to two starts this season, López and rookie sensation Spencer Schwellenbach, a revelation in just his second season of pro ball.
Albies struggling since return
Snitker thought it might take some time for Ozzie Albies to get used to batting exclusively right-handed in his return from the IL.
In Albies’ first two games back after missing two months with a fractured left wrist, he’s gone 1-for-10 and hit the ball out of the infield twice — a lineout to right field on the first pitch he saw Friday in his first game back, against right-hander Valente Bellozo, and a flyout in the eighth Saturday against righty Michael Peterson.
Albies’ only hit was a single on a ball that bounced off home plate in the fifth inning Saturday, and he scored two batters later on an Olson single to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.
One inning later, Albies’ throwing error to first base let in the tying run when he tried to complete a double play on a fielder’s choice.
Albies, a switch hitter throughout his professional career, is hitting right-handed exclusively for now, due to lingering soreness in the left wrist. He continues to work on his lefty swing and will resume hitting from both sides whenever that feels comfortable again.
He fully intends to be switch hitting again when the Braves report to spring training, which should dispel any notion fans or others might have that he’ll take to batting right-handed all the time and stick with it.
After returning from a two-game rehab stint this week, Albies saw three pitches in his first two at-bats Friday, including a third-inning pop fly. He popped out again in the fifth inning of that game, then grounded into a double play after Michael Harris II’s seventh-inning leadoff single. Albies grounded out again to end Friday’s 4-3 loss.
“He went into his third at-bat seeing two pitches,” Snitker said, smiling when asked before Saturday’s game if anything stood out regarding Albies’ at-bats Friday. “But, you know, he fouled a couple off really good. It’s going to be an adjustment. I didn’t expect him to come back in here and hit three homers, really.
“But I think the more he’s in there, the more he sees, the better he’s going to time things up.”
Facing a below-average righty, Adam Oller, on Saturday, Albies grounded out in the first inning, then popped out in the third inning after Harris’ leadoff single. After going 0-for-7 in his first seven plate appearances off the IL, Albies topped a ball that bounced off the plate for a single in the fifth.
(Photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
