'You miss a guy like that': Fried dominates in return

CHICAGO -- If anyone wondered whether Max Fried would be rusty after a three-month stint on the injured list, the Braves lefty answered resoundingly in Friday’s 8-0 win at Wrigley Field.

And for anyone wondering what type of impact Fried can have on an already strong Atlanta team the rest of the way, look no further than his dominant performance against the Cubs.

“It's like making a huge trade to get him back,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He's been one of the top starting pitchers in the league for a while now. You miss a guy like that.”

Snitker said that before the game, after Fried, who went on the injured list on May 9 with a left forearm strain, was activated off the injured list. Fried then tossed six shutout innings, allowing just three hits -- all singles -- and struck out eight.

Fried’s return figured to be impactful for the Braves, who became the first team in baseball to reach 70 wins on Friday. But his dominance after such a long layoff seemed at least a bit of a pleasant surprise to his skipper.

“That was something else,” Snitker said postgame. “I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t think he’d be that sharp. That was pretty good and very impressive what he did.”

Fried retired Chicago’s first 12 hitters in order and faced the minimum through five innings. Cody Bellinger’s leadoff seeing-eye single in the fifth gave the Cubs their first baserunner, and Fried quickly erased it by getting Yan Gomes to ground into a double play.

“Fried was pitching like an ace,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “Real stuff in the zone, mixing multiple pitches, kitchen sink thrown at everybody. We never got him in trouble at all other than a couple singles. So, yeah, just a beating.

“It’s 94-plus from the left side, and it’s got real run to it. He’s got some cuts, the changeup was effective, he was able to land the breaking ball and the backfoot sliders. He was good. It’s a multipitch mix in the zone, with stuff. He’s good.”

Fried threw just 72 pitches. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.7 mph. In his previous five starts this season, it averaged 93.7 mph.

“I felt sharper than expected,” Fried said. “A lot of nervous energy. I was looking forward to this day for a long time. Really just tried to simplify it and keep us in there as long as we can.

“These guys have been doing so good for so long. I just wanted to seamlessly fit in and not mess anything up.”

Initially, Friday’s game had the makings of a pitcher’s duel between Fried and Kyle Hendricks, who combined to retire the game’s first 18 hitters in order. But Atlanta sent 11 batters to the plate in the fourth inning, tallying eight hits -- six for extra bases -- and scoring seven runs.

Sean Murphy and Marcell Ozuna hit back-to-back homers, the 14th time this season the Braves have done so. Their franchise record (16 in 2019) and MLB record (18 by the '96 Mariners) are both in sight.

“I’ve never been a part of an offense that can do that,” Murphy said of the Braves’ ability to put up crooked innings. “It feels like any inning, at any point, we can explode for a whole bunch.”

The six extra-base hits in the fourth tied the Braves’ mark for the most in a single inning over the past 50 seasons. They also had six on June 11, 2002, against the Twins.

The Braves have weathered the absences of Fried, last year’s National League Cy Young Award runner-up, and Kyle Wright -- MLB's only 20-game winner last season -- the past few months behind strong organizational depth. Their rotation entered Friday eighth in baseball in ERA (3.99).

“A big part of that allowed me to not have to rush back, not have to try to hurry up too quickly,” Fried said. “It was very much on my timeline. Whenever I was feeling good, we’d move on to the next thing. That was really big.”

But it’s no secret what Fried means to Atlanta’s staff and what his presence could mean down the stretch and into October. And as much as the lefty said he enjoyed watching his team have so much success, he missed being part of it.

“We trusted everyone coming up, and the guys that we put in those spots did great,” Murphy said. “They kept us going until Max got back. Now that Max is back, it feels like the staff got that much deeper.”