Max Fried once again got the Braves back on track with another of those dominant starts he frequently produced over the past couple of months.
Ozzie Albies capped a two-run third with a double and Austin Riley drilled a sixth-inning solo homer that gave Fried some comfort as he guided the Braves to a 3-0 win over the Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Saturday at American Family Field.
“The stakes might be higher [in the postseason], but if you go out there and make the pitch you’re supposed to make, that’s going to trump all,” Fried said. “For me to just go out there and simplify it as much as I can and stay on the attack, rather than nibble, that was the only thought I had.”
Fried recorded nine strikeouts and allowed just three hits during his impressive 81-pitch effort.
NLDS Game 2 Highlights : Atlanta Braves 3 – 0 Milwaukee Brewers
“[Fried] went through the meat of their lineup there in the sixth and expended what I thought was a lot of energy right there, in a real big moment in playoff baseball,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Charlie has been through this a hundred times. Max is just cutting his teeth with all of this.”
Fried’s rise toward being one of the game’s top starters began during his 17-win season in 2019, when he added a slider to a repertoire that had always featured a good curveball. He threw 20 sliders on Saturday. The Brewers whiffed with six of the 13 swings taken against the pitch. A called strike was registered against five of the seven sliders that didn’t induce a swing.
“It’s just a ton of strikes,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “There’s no free pitches for the hitters. He doesn’t leave stuff in the middle. The slider has been a really good pitch to the right-handed hitters. It kind of bears in on their hands and he pairs that with a fastball on their hands.”
