NEW YORK — It remains to be seen whether the Atlanta Braves make a robust contract offer to extend Max Fried this summer or a competitive bid to re-sign him as a free agent in the fall, but Sunday was a reminder of how much they need him.
The Braves would have a significantly reduced chance of making a deep postseason run without Fried, who has the experience, intelligence and grit to go with a pitch assortment as varied as any pitcher not named Yu Darvish.
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All of that was on display on a steamy Sunday afternoon at sold-out Yankee Stadium, where Fried limited baseball’s second-highest-scoring team to one run in six innings of a 3-1 win that reduced his ERA to 3.00, quite a feat considering the left-hander allowed 10 earned runs in five innings in his first two starts this season.
Behind a resurgent offense and continued strong pitching from their top three starters and bullpen, the Braves have won eight of 10 since ending a five-game skid and a 17-24 stretch in which they ranked at or near the bottom of the majors in most hitting categories. They have consecutive series wins over the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers (a sweep) and Yankees.
#Braves win 3-1 to take the series at Yankee Stadium. That's eight wins in 10 games for Atlanta since its 5-game skid.
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Takeaways from the Braves’ uptick:
1. The power’s back on
The Braves lead the majors with 19 homers in their past nine games, four more than they had in the previous 20 games including 12 losses.
Matt Olson has three homers in the past 11 games and Austin Riley has four homers in the past nine games. That’s two of last year’s All-Star sluggers who’d struggled to find their power strokes taking some of the load off of Marcell Ozuna, the only Atlanta returning hitter who’s not seen a performance dip since last season.
The Braves are scoring runs early again after nearly breaking a first-inning MLB scoring record a year ago. They were getting entirely outplayed in the opening inning(s) during their recent extended hitting slump.
“Yeah, I think we’re playing more to our capabilities,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Quite honestly, I still don’t think we’re hitting on all cylinders.”
2. Trio of aces
The Braves’ pitching has been a strength all season, which kept them from falling further behind the National League East-leading Philadelphia Phillies during Atlanta’a long hitting slump. They are seven games behind the Phillies after falling as far as 10 1/2 games back.
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Particularly impressive is the starting trio of veteran Chris Sale, major-league ERA leader Reynaldo López and Fried, all of whom figure to get All-Star consideration in a year when Ozuna might be Atlanta’s only non-pitcher at the Midsummer Classic.
Fried, who had four strikeouts with no walks and six hits allowed Sunday, has a 2.12 ERA in his past 13 starts, and in his past 11, he’s crafted a 1.95 ERA while averaging nearly seven innings. That included two complete games in which he allowed three hits and gave up no runs in one and one earned run in the other.
“Max is definitely one of the best pitchers in the game right now,” said Braves center fielder Jarred Kelenic, whose two-out homer in the third inning off lefty Nestor Cortes provided a 1-0 lead Sunday. “As a defense, playing behind him makes it a lot easier because you don’t have to do much. He’s just out there pitching around the zone the entire game and it’s fun to watch.”
“We still have a long way to go,” Fried said of his turnaround after the first two starts. “So, I’m happy that I can just keep us in games for as long as I can. But we still have probably a little over a half a year left. It’s just about keeping the head down and trying to finish.”
Snitker said, “It’s kind of like our hitting — we knew it was going to turn around, that he wasn’t going to be like that. Just something that was kind of a freak thing, but he’s turned it around and been his old self again and been really, really good.”
3. Kelenic takes to leadoff
Kelenic also had a sacrifice fly in a two-run fifth inning Sunday and has three homers and a .999 OPS in eight games since moving to the leadoff spot in place of injured center fielder Michael Harris II.
A former super-prospect whom the Braves acquired in December after three inconsistent seasons with the Seattle Mariners, Kelenic has begun to show why the Braves made a series of trades this winter and took on some bad contracts to gain five years of control with Kelenic.
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He’s hit .317 during a 10-game hitting streak that matches his career best, but it’s in the eight games since he moved to leadoff that he’s thrived.
“Man, he’s been really good,” Snitker said. “He should be confident. I mean his at-bats have been really, really good.”
(Photo of Max Fried: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)
David O'Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL
