Atlanta Braves complete sweep of Marlins with more heroics from Max Fried

The Atlanta Braves finished off the Miami Marlins on Sunday with a 3-1 win in extra innings thanks to some great base running by Max Fried.

It was a typical Sunday afternoon getaway game as neither offense was very interested in scoring many runs, but the Atlanta Braves prevailed with the win and the sweep.

After Josh Donaldson led off the top of the 10th with a walk, Brian Snitker decided to let pitcher Max Fried pinch-run for him.

Ender Inciarte was the next batter and he slapped one down the line that allowed Fried to score all the way from first.

In all seriousness, that could have a been a very bad moment for the Atlanta Braves as Fried slammed his pitching arm into the catcher’s leg. Hopefully nothing comes of that and Fried is alright, because he has been lights out on the mound.

After the game, Snitker told Fried never to dive again. He may also want to talk to third base coach Ron Washington who gave the aggressive send. Fried would have been a dead duck had the catcher caught the ball.

Here are three takeaways from today’s game:

* Julio finishes a good start: For the past several starts now Julio Teheran has had good stuff, but he still manages to give up a handful of runs. On Sunday he found himself in a couple of jams but was able to work out of them. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, but this was the Marlins, so… In the end, he pitched 6 scoreless innings giving up just 2 hits and 2 walks.

* This bullpen looks really good: I know Josh Tomlin gave up the lead in the eighth, but it’s not like the offense gave him much wiggle room. But overall, the Atlanta Braves bullpen actually looks like a formidable bullpen over the past week. But again, this was against the Marlins.

* Nick Markakis still knows how to hit: I’ll be the first to admit that I was not at all pleased with the lateral move this past offseason to bring back Markakis. However, the veteran still knows how to hit the baseball and was great on Sunday as he got on all four times he went to the plate. He gave the Atlanta Braves the lead early with a solo home run — his third of the year. As much criticism as Alex Anthopoulos gets for not improving the bullpen this past offseason — and he deserves such criticism — he should be praised for the Markakis signing.

The Atlanta Braves are now two games over .500 and are second in the NL East. But this road trip is about to get ramped up a notch as they head out West to face the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.