Max Fried Moves Up Atlanta Braves Historic Ranks In Much-Needed Win Over Miami Marlins

Atlanta Braves Max Fried has a clutch start in the win over the Miami Marlins while making some history along the way.

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried picks up a big win to even series with the Miami Marlins. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images / Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried picked up a much-needed win on Saturday. Heading into the game, the Braves were 3-6 in his nine starts since he returned from the Injured List. 

He had also allowed three earned runs or more in six of those nine starts. Fried needed to come up in the clutch in the final games of the season and he did just that. 

In six innings of work, he gave up just one earned run (two total) allowing just five hits and a walk while striking out six. 

“Yeah, he was on point,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I mean, I thought his stuff was really, really good - his offspeed, his changeup - and I saw he had good velocity on his fastball. He was just - he was really good today.”

Fried picked up his 72nd career win. This tied him with Steve Avery for the fifth most by a Braves lefty in team history. He is tied for second in the Atlanta era (since 1966) for wins by a lefty. He’ll have a chance to take sole possession of second all-time in his next and likely final start of the regular season. 

His win helped the Braves keep pace with the New York Mets. The win kept them within two games of the final Wild Card spot in the National League. The Braves are also still three games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second Wild Card. That’s the important part to him in the end. 

“We played a really good game today,” Fried said. The at-bats were really good, and we never gave in. Made some unbelievable defensive plays and threw the ball and made pitches when we needed to. Right now, that's kind of all we have to do, is just focus on playing our game and put our best foot forward and leave it all out there.”

Based on his usual rest days between starts, Fried’s next start should line up with the series finale in the Mets series on Thursday. He’ll be taking the mound in a prime spot - that last-ditch effort to leapfrog the division rival to make it to October baseball.