SEATTLE - On Monday at T-Mobile Park, the Braves fell six outs shy of writing their names into the record books.
Instead, it was a crushing loss to the Mariners.
A.J. Minter gave up a walk-off homer to Mitch Garver. Seattle beat Atlanta, 2-1, despite six hitless innings from Braves starter Max Fried.
Five observations:
1. Minter fell behind Garver, 3-0, but battled back to a full count with a four-seam fastball away and a cutter low and away.
“All I was trying to do was throw a strike and I did,” Minter said, “but I’m sure it was in the middle of the plate and he made me pay.”
Minter’s sixth pitch to Garver was the final offering of the night: He threw a belt-high cutter and Garver blasted it 412 feet for a two-run shot.
Minter was trying to close out the win because Raisel Iglesias was unavailable after pitching on Saturday and Sunday.
“When you come in in that situation, you try to make them earn it,” said Minter, who gave up a leadoff single before the homer. “You could tell I didn’t have my A-plus stuff today. But at the same time, you gotta figure out a way to get it done and I couldn’t. Hate it for Max. Pitched an unbelievable game. And even for Pierce (Johnson) to come in and Joe (Jiménez) to come in and put zeroes on the board, just hate it for the guys. And one bad pitch can lose you the game. You hate it, but that’s what happened.”
Entering Monday’s game, Minter had a 1.32 ERA. His five wins were tied for the MLB lead. He had been unbelievably reliable for Atlanta.
The game ended with him on the mound, but the Braves’ offense didn’t give him much breathing room. The pitchers ruled the series opener and Atlanta only had a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
“Just on both sides, it was an unbelievable game for both pitchers,” Minter said. “Any loss hurts, but there’s no reason for us to feel sorry for ourselves just because of one game, especially when Max did an unbelievable job. One hit. That’s baseball. It’s gonna happen and I gotta be better and make a better pitch right there.”
2. In this game, we were treated to something special and rare: Dueling no-hitters. For six innings, Fried and Bryce Miller kept each other’s lineups out of the hit column. And through the first five, Miller didn’t even allow a baserunner.
With one out in the sixth inning, Travis d’Arnaud drew a four-pitch walk to end Miller’s perfect game. But the next batter, former Mariner Jarred Kelenic, grounded into an inning-ending double play.
So it went on Monday.
The pitchers dazzled, each spinning his own gem. The hitters, on the other hand, could only hope.
“It’s fun,” Fried said. “I feel like with offenses now, it tends be lopsided at some point in the game. But when you’re able to go out there and it’s fairly quick innings, and you’re in the dugout for a little bit, back out there, and you’re kind of back and forth, you have a nice rhythm, it’s a fun one.”
The Braves found a way to break through first.
Ronald Acuña Jr. ended Miller’s no-hitter when he led off the seventh inning with an infield single off the sliding shortstop. Then, with Ozzie Albies at the plate, Acuña stole second base and third base to put more pressure on Miller.
Albies smoked a run-scoring double to break the scoreless tie.
But the Braves finished with only three hits. They might be baseball’s best offense on paper, but they’re not immune to struggles.
Acuña, Austin Riley and Matt Olson haven’t yet clicked. And the three combined to go 1-for-11.
Then again, the Braves really didn’t have much success against Miller and Co.
3. It was 18.00. Then 8.74. Then 7.71. Then 4.97.
Now, it is 4.02.
This is Fried’s ERA, from after the Diamondbacks start on April 6 to Monday. The decrease shows you how well Fried has pitched since two rough outings to begin the year.
“I mean, I would say the first two innings that I threw, just kind of out of whack a little bit, just not all that much in rhythm,” Fried said. “But feel like I’ve got a really good feel and understanding of where I’m at. Just trying to keep it as simple as possible, which is attack guys, get some ground balls and keep us in games. As long as I can kind of just keep that simple mentality, I should have some success.”
Fried on Monday walked two batters. He threw 100 pitches. A handful of lengthy at-bats drove up his pitch count, but he was excellent.
Versus the Mariners, Fried spun his entire repertoire – would you expect anything less? – but his curveball stood out. He threw 20 of them. On four swings, he got two whiffs. Five were called strikes. One was a foul ball.
After six innings, Braves manager Brian Snitker decided not to push Fried any more despite the no-hitter he had going.
“It was a little bit more of Snit saying that I was done, at 100 pitches,” Fried said. “He was like, ‘Look, you’re throwing the ball well, you’re feeling good. It’s still early, it’s April. Keep the big picture in mind.’ Definitely, I wanted to go back out there. But completely understand and respect Snit’s decision.”
4. Kelenic was Miller’s teammate in Seattle last year.
What makes the righty so good?
“He locates his heater pretty well, and then he’s got that splitter that had some crazy movement – inconsistent movement, which is tough for a hitter,” Kelenic said. “But he’s got so much life with that fastball that you almost have to treat it like it’s five to six miles per hour above what it is, and I think almost (try) to chop it into the ground. I felt like we had so many great swings on it, but just a lot of foul balls. He’s got good stuff and he’s been pitching well. We caught him at the wrong time.”
Miller struck out 10 Braves. He allowed a run on two hits. He issued one walk.
Miller’s first 13 pitches were fastballs. The Braves whiffed 17 times on 52 swings against Miller, who finished with 97 pitches.
“It’s just good stuff,” Snitker said. “He had that split. He’s got a really good arm. And he throws strikes. It’s really good stuff, overall. His whole assortment is really good.”
5. The Braves’ last no-hitter came on April 8, 1994, when Kent Mercker no-hit the Dodgers. On that night, Mercker fielded the last out himself.
The current Braves club fell six outs shy of making April 29, 2024 a date to remember.
Johnson followed Fried with a hitless seventh inning.
Then in the eighth inning, Josh Rojas grounded a single past a diving Albies and into right field off Joe Jiménez.
The Mariners pressured Jiménez, who issued a leadoff walk. Then Rojas singled. Two batters later, a one-out infield single, which Albies knocked down but couldn’t convert into an out, loaded the bases.
With a one-run lead, Jiménez got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to shallow left field – not deep enough to score a run – before striking out Mitch Haniger to end the inning.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Stat to know
15 - Fried is on a 15-inning scoreless streak, dating to his start against Miami. In that outing, he tossed his fourth career shutout, third of the nine-inning variety.
Quotable
“They shut us down offensively, pretty much. It was a really good ballgame. We couldn’t get a big hit, get anything going offensively. It’s just one of them games.” - Snitker on the loss
Up next
On Tuesday, the Braves’ Reynaldo López will face Seattle’s Luis Castillo. The game begins at 9:40 p.m.
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