Max Fried solid, Forrest Wall and Ozzie Albies clutch as Braves come back to win

Albies hit a go ahead HR in the bottom of the eighth as the Braves completed the comeback victory.

It’s Max Fried day as the Atlanta Braves took on the Detroit Tigers for Fried’s first every start against the franchise in his eight year career.

Fried had only ever faced Canha, Vierling, and Urshela before tonight’s game, so it was intriguing to see how he would do, especially after giving up four runs to Baltimore in his last start in which he was doing well in for most of the game.

Fried started the game off strong, retiring the first to hitters he faced, but his nemeses Mark Canha got another hit off of hit with a single to RF. Fried was able to shake it off and get Riley Greene to ground out to end the inning.

Fried looked even better in the second inning, facing the minimum number of hitters, striking out former Braves prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy along the way. For those who don’t remember, Malloy was traded for Joe Jiménez.

In the third, Fried kept on cruising. He yet again faced the minimum number of hitters, striking out Rogers and Kreidler back-to-back raising his strikeout total to four after only facing nine hitters to this point. He got Vierling to lineout to end the inning.

The fourth inning was not as kind to Fried. He started off nice retiring Andy Ibáñez and Mark Canha to start the inning, but that is when trouble started brewing. He then walked Riley Greene, followed by a single from Gio Urshela. This put runners on the corners with two outs. He then walked Malloy after being ahead in the count 0-2 to load the bases. Fortunately, he was able to get Colt Keith to ground out to end the inning with no runs scored.

Fried shook off the fourth inning struggles and sat down the all three batters faced in the fifth. With this boost in confidence, Brian Snitker left in the game in the sixth even though his pitch count was rising. This is where things got bad (for Fried’s standards). Ibáñez singled and then Canha drew a walk. Riley Greene then singled scoring Ibáñez to make the score 0-1 with zero outs. Fried was able to strike out Urshela, but then Jesse Chavez came to save the day. Chavez replaced Fried and Struck out Malloy. He did balk to move up runners to second and third, but then struck out Keith with no further damage done.

Fried ended his night with 5.1 innings pitched with one ER, four hits (all singles), three walks, and six strikeouts.

Chavez stayed in the game for the seventh and sat down all three hitters, lowering his season ERA to 1.21 (he better be an All-Star). Daysbel Hernández replaced Chavez in the eighth. Hernández kept things interesting, as he did not have a Chavez type of night. He got Ibáñez to groundout but then Canha hit the Tigers’ first extra base hit of the night with double. He then intentionally walked Riley Greene to put two on with one out. To his credit, he made up for the double, and stuck out Urshela and Baddoo (who replaced Malloy) to end the inning with no runs scored.

Joe Jiménez came in to pitch the ninth and was his typical dominate self. He got Keith and Rogers to both groundout and then got Wenceel Pérez to strikeout swinging on a wicked slider.

In the first inning for the Braves, it looked like they may get something going. Although Kelenic and Albies were retired to start the game, Ozuna came through yet again with a double. However, Olson could not take advantage and flied out to end the inning.

The second inning also looked promising as Austin Riley led off with a double of his own. Unfortunately, this double was followed by a strikeout from Duvall, groundout from Murphy, and a strikeout to Wall.

The third inning again looked promising as Kelenic singled and then stole second to put a runner in scoring position with one out. Albies then moved the runner over to third on a groundout, but Ozuna could not drive him in when he struck out.

The fourth inning did not show promise like the other three as Reese Olson was able to keep the Braves quite and limit them to the minimum hitters. The fifth was not much better as the only offense that happened was a single from struggling Orlando Arcia. The sixth inning was more of the same story as the Braves were yet again held to the minimum batters even with Albies, Ozuna, and Olson coming to hit.

The seventh is where the Braves finally came through. Being down 0-1 Austin Riley doubled for his second double of the night. Duvall flied out on a ball that would have been a HR in twenty-two stadiums, moving Riley to third with one out. Sean Murphy grounded out and it looked like the Braves were going to squander another opportunity, but newly promoted Forrest Wall came in clutch with a two-out game tying RBI single to score Riley making the score 1-1. Wall was caught trying to steal second to end the inning, but he did his damage.

The eighth inning was among us and the game was still tied 1-1. The Braves had more base runners than the Tigers, but other than the Wall single were not able capitalize on it. Arcia and Kelenic were retired to start the inning, looking like it was going to be another one-two-three inning for the Tigers’ pitching. But then, Ozzie Albies stepped up to the plate. On a 1-1 four-seam fast ball left over the middle of the plate, he took former Braves ace Shelby Miller 407 feet over the right field wall to make the score 2-1. This would be the final score.

Fried, Wall, and Albies were the heroes tonight, but it sure was nice to see Riley come through with two doubles, and the bullpen getting it done. The Braves will bring Schwellenbach to the mound tomorrow to face off against former first overall draft pick, Casey Mize.