Braves NLDS Game 1: Max Fried Stumbles And Phillies Take Advantage
With their ace on the mound and home-field advantage, the Atlanta Braves were out-played by the Philadelphia in Game 1 of the NLDS.
The advantage of the Atlanta Braves making that historic comeback to win the NL East over the New York Mets was to avoid the Wild Card round and get some players healthy with five days off.
That’s all gone now as the Philadelphia Phillies won Game 1 by a 7-6 score and are now setup with Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola in the next two games.
Unfortunately, Max Fried just simply didn’t have it on Tuesday. His velocity was down over 1 MPH and he often missed over the plate allowing Phillies hitters to get good wood on the baseball in clutch spots.
Fried lasted just 3.1 innings and gave up 6 runs (4 ER) on 8 hits and 1 walk with just 2 strikeouts. The 2 unearned runs came on his own error with a high throw to first base.
It just was not the type of performance we’ve come accustomed to seeing from Fried and it put the Braves behind early.
Braves NLDS Game 1: Phillies Get the Big Hits the Braves Don’t
It sounds obvious enough, but Brian Snitker summed it up perfectly after the game when he said, “We just couldn’t get a big hit. … They got big hits and we didn’t.”
While the Braves led the league during the regular season in 2-out RBI, it was the Phillies who scored 5 runs with 2 outs.
The Braves had several chances in this game to comeback — including two opportunities with the bases loaded — but they were 2-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.
Perhaps the biggest moment in the game came in the first inning as William Contreras batted with the bases loaded and one out. He took a 2-1 pitch that was well off the plate inside, but was called a strike. Later in the at-bat, he grounded a ball up the middle for an inning-ending double-play.
That was a huge call and a huge moment in the game.
But the bottom line is, Fried didn’t pitch well enough and the offense failed to come through when they had some chances.
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Still, you like the fight from the team late. Kyle Wright won 21 games during the regular season and the Braves will be looking for him to get the biggest win of the year on Wednesday to try and even this sereis.