Braves left-hander Max Fried underwent a precautionary MRI on his right hamstring following his start in the team’s 14-8 loss Tuesday to the Marlins. Fried suffered the injury while running the bases in the fourth inning.
Fried struggled mightily for the second consecutive outing. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits across four innings. The lefty is coming off a breakout season in which he owned a 2.25 ERA in 11 starts. The Braves won 10 of those outings. This season, Fried has an 11.45 ERA across three starts. The Braves have lost his past two appearances.
To top off his rough night, Fried stayed in the game to hit in the bottom of the fourth inning because the Braves are operating with a four-man bench. He doubled - Fried is an excellent hitting pitcher — and later scored. But he was injured running from second to third.
Fried spoke with reporters shortly following his MRI but didn’t have an update.
“I was going second to third, and it locked up, tightened up on me,” he said. “Standing over at third base, it started to slowly tighten up. Running home, I definitely felt it a little bit more. I think it’s just one of those things where we’ll see how I feel tomorrow and take it from there.”
The Braves have had several unfortunate injury developments in the last week. Starter Mike Soroka, working his way back from a torn Achilles, was shut down after experiencing right-shoulder inflammation, the team said April 7. Three days later, reliever Chris Martin was placed on the injured list with right-shoulder inflammation. Outfielder Cristian Pache left Tuesday’s game early with left-groin tightness and will require time on the IL. And now, the Braves await word on Fried’s hamstring.
“It’s definitely a tough way to end the night, especially giving up the lead and having the kind of outing I did,” Fried said. “I’m just trying to move on, take the positives from it and go forward from there, try to learn from all the mistakes I made.”
