Max Fried's dominant run of form on the mound continued, as he pitched another seven strong innings and reached a career-high in strikeouts for a single game in his career. Atlanta's offense more-than backed him up in this one as well, as the Atlanta Braves cruised to a 8-3 win over the Boston Red Sox.
The first inning may have been quiet for both Atlanta and Boston but it was actually an early sign of how this night was about to go for Max Fried. Fried threw 17 pitches in the first inning but he did strike out the side in the process and little did we know at the time that Fried striking out Red Sox batters was about to become a running theme on the night.
While both teams remained scoreless in the first inning, it didn't take much longer than that for the Braves to get going in this one. An error from Dominic Smith allowed Matt Olson to reach first base and then the Braves ended up with runners on second and third base after Ozzie Albies reached base on a hustle double. Dominic Smith then proceeded to gift the Braves an extra run on what should've been a productive groundball out for Adam Duvall. Instead, Smith dropped the throw to first and consequently for Boston, Ozzie never stopped hustling and he came around to score shortly after Olson did to make it 2-0 Braves at that point.
Boston then responded with three runs over the next two innings. Honestly, it seemed a bit unbelievable that they had pushed three past the plate at this point in the contest since it wasn't like Max Fried was pitching badly in any way, shape or form. Instead, the bounces just weren't going his way in these two frames and that was evident by the solitary run that the Red Sox scored in the third inning.
With one out in this frame, Dominic Smith hit what would've been a pop fly out in 28 of the 30 ballparks across Major League Baseball. Instead, because he hit this particular pop fly in Fenway Park, it landed at the very top of the Green Monster in left field and was ruled a home run. Smith made up for the run he gave up with the error in the second inning and the Red Sox were right in the game.
The next inning saw Boston damage Fried with a bunch of tiny cuts. Connor Wong got on base with a one-out walk, Rafael Devers followed that up with a single, Jamie Westbrook (in his second major league game, ever) made it to first base after a swing of his hit Sean Murphy's glove for catcher's interference and then Bobby Dalbec came through with two outs on the board with a bases-loaded bloop single to make it 3-2 Red Sox at that point. Max Fried and the rest of the Braves had to have been cursing their luck a bit at this juncture of the game but that's baseball! All you can do is move forward.
Move forward is just what Atlanta did, as they responded at the very next chance they got. Jarred Kelenic led off the fifth inning with a double and then Sean Murphy wasted little time in cashing in Kelenic as he hit a burner up the middle that Westbrook was unable to bring into his glove. Instead, it deflected into center field and Kelenic motored around the basepaths to score and tie the game back up at three.
The Braves weren't finished, as it was now time to push ahead and get some breathing room, at that. It all started in the sixth inning with a leadoff walk for Austin Riley and things got worse for Kutter Crawford after Marcell Ozuna hit a single that Boston's infield was unable to do anything with. Ozzie Albies eventually returned to the plate with one out and Crawford served him up a 91-mph pitch that was right in the middle of the zone. While Crawford may have made a mistake with the pitch, Ozzie made no mistake with what he did with it as he hit it into the Red Sox bullpen in center field to make it a 6-3 ballgame for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves were finished scoring in that inning following Ozzie's big bop but the damage had certainly been done in order to end Crawford's night after six innings.
Max Fried, meanwhile, was not done. Aside from hitting Jamie Westbrook with a pitch, Fried struck out the side to land at 12 strikeouts on the night through six innings. Despite giving up three runs, it was pretty clear that this was looking like another great night on the mound for Fried. He went into the seventh inning with a three-run lead and that was eventually transformed into a four-run lead after Orlando Arcia got his groove back and smacked a homer into the road bullpen off of Chase Anderson.
Arcia's homer meant that Fried returned to the mound for his final inning of the game with a four-run lead. As if there was any doubt about what was about to happen, Fried pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to finish off his night and he even picked up another strikeout to make it a career-high 13 strikeouts on the night. This was the fifth time in Fried's past six starts that he'd gone at least seven innings and now it's abundantly clear that the top pitcher in Atlanta's rotation is completely locked in at this moment in the season.
Both teams went scoreless in the eighth inning but the Braves made things a bit more comfortable for themselves in the ninth inning. That comfort was not extended to Sean Murphy, though, as he got hit by a pitch on his elbow with two outs in the ninth and suffered a nasty-looking welt on that part of his arm as a result. Murphy exited the game after that and Zack Short pinch-ran for him. The Braves ended up cashing in the run after Orlando Arcia and Michael Harris II hit back-to-back singles to make it 8-3 Atlanta but if they're being honest, they would have given the run right back if it meant that they didn't have to worry about Sean Murphy getting hurt again.
Travis d'Arnaud entered the game to catch in the ninth inning and this ended up being an easy and breezy frame of work for the veteran catcher. Jesse Chavez pitched the ninth inning after Pierce Johnson pitched the eighth inning with no issues and Chavez himself found no major problems in finishing off the game. While Chavez did give up a leadoff single to Emmanuel Valdez, a pop fly and a double play finished things off and put the Braves back at 10 games over .500 for the season.
Once again, the main story for the night was Max Fried having yet another great outing on the mound. While he did give up three runs (two earned), it was another night where he got deep into the game and it was the finest night of his career when it comes to strikeouts as he racked up a baker's dozen on the night — tied for the most by a National League pitcher at Fenway Park since Stephen Strasburg picked up 13 strikeouts for the Nationals all the way back in 2012. It also helped that Atlanta's offense exploded for eight runs and a pair of homers on the night. That's the second time in three games that the Braves have scored eight runs and here's hoping that this is a sign that the offense is starting to go on the type of run that we expect out of them.
All in all, this was a great night at the ballpark for the Braves and now they have a chance to pick up a mini-sweep in the quick turnaround tomorrow afternoon. Spencer Schwellenbach will be making his second career start and he'll be hoping to make some Fenway memories as the Braves go for the season sweep of the Red Sox at 1:35 P.M. E.T. tomorrow.
