Braves pitcher Max Fried thanked his teammates for Monday’s 5-4 win against the Phillies in the National League Division Series, saying he could not execute his pitches. The series is tied at 1 with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Because a blister caused him to miss his last start in the regular season, Fried was pitching for the first time since Sept 21. Facing a tough Phillies lineup, Fried allowed three earned runs on six hits with four walks in four innings. He threw 95 pitches and the Phillies left seven runners on base against him.
“I was awfully rusty,” he said. “I had no command. Only pitch I really had was my curveball and Travis (d’Arnaud) did a great job back there trying to just get me through it with not a lot of command or stuff.”
Fried said the blister on his left index finger was gone so there were no physical limitations. He just couldn’t throw strikes. Forty-four of his 95 pitches were balls.
Alec Bohm singled in Trea Turner, who doubled to right center in the first, to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Fried escaped with the bases loaded in the first inning by getting Bryson Stott to ground out to first on a 3-1 count. Fried threw 30 pitches in the inning.
In the second, Johan Rojas was left stranded on second when Fried got Turner to ground out to short on a 3-2 count.
Philadelphia increased its lead to 3-0 in the third inning on a two-run homer by JT Realmuto, who turned on a hanging slider.
Fried walked two more batters in the fourth to put runners on first and second with two outs. Facing Bryce Harper, Fried got ahead in the count before getting him to hit a weak grounder to second to end the inning.
“We had runners in scoring position, we just didn’t get it done,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Credit: Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com
Credit: Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com
Braves manager Brian Snitker said he thinks Fried’s biggest issue was he hadn’t pitched in 18 days. Fried went 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA during the regular season.
“He felt good, and I think it was just, you know, Max is a feel guy, and he hadn’t been out there other than one day last week,” Snitker said. “So to me, he did a great job gutting through that thing and keeping the game manageable.”
The Braves bullpen limited the Phillies to three hits over the final five innings, giving the offense time to find a groove against Zack Wheeler.
“All the all the credit for everything just goes to them, these guys, bullpen, defense, I mean to make that kind of comeback and be able to have that kind of game, it was a lot of fun to watch,” Fried said.
