Fried's dominance helping to steady Braves

If the Braves right themselves and encounter success over the remainder of this year, there’s a good chance one of the season’s key moments will be Adam Duvall's ninth-inning homer that provided a 2-1 win over the Marlins on Saturday night at Marlins Park.

“That was a huge win there, that’s for sure,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We needed it. [Max Fried] put us on his shoulders again tonight. He was really, really good.”

This was as close to a must-win game as you will find for a team that is a little more than one-third of the way through a 60-game schedule. While losing their previous four games, the Braves were repeatedly reminded of how thin their rotation depth has become. They feel good every time Fried takes the mound and then reach for hope over each of the four days that follow.

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So when Duvall drilled Brandon Kintler’s slider off the left-field foul pole with one out in the ninth, the Braves could exhale. Duvall’s 100th career homer snapped a four-game losing streak and preserved the latest gem produced by Fried, who looked like a legit frontline starter as he scattered four hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings.

“He’s just a man on a mission out there, and it was fun to watch tonight,” Duvall said.

For the first time since Fried’s last start, in Sunday’s nightcap vs. Philadelphia, the Braves received value from their fractured rotation. Their starters totaled 9 1/3 innings over the four-game skid entering Saturday.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessarily a new trend. A Braves starter has completed at least five innings in just nine of the team’s first 22 games; Fried has accounted for five of those instances.

“Whenever he goes out there, you like your chances,” Duvall said.

After Braves ace Mike Soroka was lost for the season with a torn right Achilles tendon on Aug. 3, Freddie Freeman was among those who predicted Fried was going to step up and take his game to another level. But could Freeman have expected Fried to allow just one run over the 17 1/3 innings (three starts) he has pitched since his close friend Soroka suffered a season-ending injury?

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“I feel so good with him on the mound,” Snitker said. “It’s been something that has been really fun to watch. He has a chance to be really good for a long time.”

Fried has produced a National League-best 1.24 ERA through his first five starts (29 innings). If this impressive stretch sounds familiar, it’s likely because Soroka produced a 1.21 ERA over his first five starts (29 2/3 innings) last year.

“You think about where [Fried] was just a couple of years ago to where he is now with the confidence and maturity,” Snitker said. “He’s getting strong mentally and physically. You hear him in the dugout between innings. He has an idea with every pitch.”

One key pitch for Fried has been the slider, a pitch he introduced to his arsenal as he posted a 4.15 ERA in 30 starts last season. The 26-year-old lefty entered 2019 with just nine career starts under his belt. So the fact he led NL southpaws with 17 wins during a “learning” year was certainly promising.

During his days as a top prospect, Fried was lauded for what remains a good curveball. But the usage for both of his breaking balls has been nearly identical this year. In fact, he used the slider (29 times) more frequently than the curveball (19) on Saturday.

Nine of the 18 swings induced by the slider resulted in a whiff. Three of the sliders were put in play, with an average exit velocity of just 68.2 mph. This is just another pitch opponents are having trouble squaring against Fried, who entered Saturday with the second-lowest barrel rate allowed (3.9 percent) dating back to the start of the 2018 season (minimum 500 balls in play).

“As soon as I believed I could compete up here and that my stuff was good enough, I was able to not press as hard and try to be too perfect,” Fried said. “That allowed me to know, if I just execute my pitches, I’m going to have a really good chance at success.”