Max Fried pitches a Maddux, Adam Duvall homers in victory over the Marlins

The Atlanta Braves faced off against the Miami Marlins for the second game of the series in which Max Fried faced off against 2021 ROTY runner-up Trevor Rogers.

Max Fried has struggled this year, but his best start so far this year was against the Marlins on April 12th in which he gave up four singles, one earned run, one walk, and had four strikeouts in 6.1 innings. Needless to say, another stellar start for Fried is what fans, and the team alike, were hoping for from the 2022 Cy Young Award runner-up.

Fried looked even better in his second start against the Marlins this month. He did not give up his first base runner until the top of the third inning when Emmanuel Rivera hit a single, and that was quickly mitigated with the following hitter (Otto Lopez) being forced into a double play.

Fried did not give up another base runner until the the top of the seventh inning. After Fried garnered five strikeouts along the way, and zero walks, Luis Arraez finally broke through with a single. Bryan De La Cruz reached on an error made by Austin Riley to be the third base runner for the Marlins on the night (this one not charged to Fried), and this threat was quickly neutralized with yet another forced double play. This time, Fried was able to get Josh Bell to be the victim. This is a good sign, because as mentioned earlier, Bell had seen Fried the most and has had the most success against him.

Max Fried did not stop in the seventh inning after giving up his second hit of the night. After only having seventy-two pitches through the 7th inning, Fried went back out for the eighth, and he did not disappoint. He was able to finish the inning in twelve pitches while striking out Rivera on three pitches for his sixth K of the night.

To the delight of many, Fried went out for the ninth inning to try for the complete game. He was successful in this attempt. He gave up another single to Arraez, but was able to keep that hit as the only base runner.

Fried was able to not only have a complete game shutout, but he did so on only ninety-two pitches, completing a “Maddux” (complete game in under one-hundred pitches). This was his third Maddux of his career.

His final line was 9.0 innings, three hits (all singles), zero walks, and six strikeouts.

On the offensive side of the ball for the Braves, Ronald Acuña Jr. started the night off with a double, but Rogers was able to retire the next three batters to end the inning without the Braves able to capitalize.

The Braves were able to put two on the board in the bottom of the second inning after Marcell Ozuna walked, Duvall reached on a fielding error, and Michael Harris hit a double followed by a sacrifice fly by David Fletcher.

Fletcher, had an RBI in his second game in a row. Fletcher is the platoon partner with Luis Guillorme while Ozzie Albies is out. It will be interesting to see the roster moves once Albies is healthy.

The offense was quieted until the fourth inning when d’Arnaud continued his hot streak with a ground-rule double, but once again the player that hit a double was stranded.

In the sixth inning, the Braves offense started rolling again. Riley singled, and was moved to third once Marcell Ozuna singled. With runners on first and third, d’Arnaud came through again with a sacrifice fly to score Riley. Not to be left out of the fun, Adam Duvall hit a HR at 104.5 MPH off the bat over the left field wall to make it a 5-0 lead. Harris and Fletcher tried to keep the scoring rolling with back to back singles, but the inning ended without further runs.

5-0 was the final score, but the Braves were on the verge of more runs when they had the bases loaded in the eighth. Fortunately, even though they did not score any runners, the runs were not needed due to Max Fried putting on a clinic.

Not only did Max Fried pitch a Maddux, he helped rest the bullpen who have been lights out recently. Another fun note, this game took under two hours.

What an absolute masterclass from Max Fried.