Braves' hot bats back Fried's 50th career W, 10th of season

WASHINGTON -- After matching his career high with five walks in his last start, Max Fried didn’t want to give anything away Saturday.

The All-Star left-hander pitched seven solid innings to earn his 10th win of the season as the Braves defeated the Nationals, 6-3, for their third straight win.

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Fried allowed three runs on seven hits to help Atlanta seize its ninth straight win against Washington and its 14th straight at Nationals Park.

“Max, I thought, was really good,” manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s got a way of getting people out. Just the assortment and everything. It was solid today.”

After walking five batters in a loss to the Mets on Monday, Fried didn’t walk a batter Saturday while striking out four.

“I just wanted to go out there and challenge the hitters,” he said. “If you walk a guy, you have zero chance of getting him out. But at least if they put the ball in play, there’s a chance of getting them out. Wanted to make it a point that I was going to go on the attack and didn’t want to have any free bases.”

Fried (10-3) reached 50 career wins in his 114th appearance and 97th start.

Since the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, only two pitchers have reached 50 career wins in as few appearances as Fried. Pat Jarvis won 51 of his first 114 games, reaching his 50th win in his 113th game, and Kevin Millwood won exactly 50 through his first 114, reaching his 50th victory in his 109th game. Both started over 105 of their first 114 games.

Fried and Kyle Wright (11 wins) give the Braves multiple pitchers with double-digit wins before the All-Star break for the first time since Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson in 2011.

Austin Riley, added to the National League All-Star team on Saturday, hit a solo homer -- his sixth in eight games -- and a double off the wall in center as Atlanta won for the seventh time in nine games.

Matt Olson hit his fourth homer in five games, a three-run shot to open the scoring, against Nationals starter Paolo Espino. Olson has hit in five straight games, going 7-for-22 (.318) with 10 RBIs and five runs scored.

Michael Harris II reached on a walk, a single and a double and stole three bases, giving him 10 steals in 47 games without being caught.

“It’s always been a part of my game,” Harris said about the stolen bases. “I just try to do everything I can, whether it’s offensively on the bases or defensively, so today was one of those days on the basepaths that I could really step up.”

Olson and Riley gave the Braves their ninth set of back-to-back homers this season in the third inning to make it 4-0. Riley extended his hitting streak to 12 games, during which he is hitting .412 (21-for-51) with seven homers, four doubles and 13 RBIs. It was his 34th multi-hit game this season, the most in Major League Baseball.

He replaced Nolan Arenado on the All-Star team after the Cardinals third baseman opted out to rest his sore back.

“What he’s been able to do and kind of what he’s meant to this team, for him to get recognized and shown that he’s one of the best third basemen in baseball, I’m really happy for him,” Fried said of Riley.

The Nationals scored twice against Fried in the fourth and pulled within 4-3 on Josh Bell’s RBI single in the sixth. But with one out and runners on first and second, Fried induced a double-play grounder from Keibert Ruiz to end the inning.

“I felt like [the Nationals] had a really good approach today,” Fried said. “Had some really good at-bats, and I would’ve liked to keep a couple more runs off the board, but the guys did a great job of grinding at-bats and getting a good lead and I just had to try and hold them.”

Then in the seventh, Dansby Swanson doubled off the wall to drive in Harris before later scoring on a two-out single by Travis d’Arnaud to make it 6-3.

The game was delayed 1:49 by rain in the middle of the eighth inning.