Tuesday Braves postgame notes
Braves vs. Blue Jays: The Braves and Blue Jays tonight played the first of a three-game series, the only meetings between the teams this season…This is the fourth consecutive season Toronto and Atlanta have played…The Braves have gone 29-24 all-time in their regular season meetings, including 22-10 (.688) since 2009…Atlanta has not lost a series with Toronto in that time, going 5-0-3 in series play…The Braves took three-of-four games from the Blue Jays last season, including both games in Atlanta.
Return to Play: The Blue Jays returned to action tonight for the first time since last Thursday, July 30…Their three-game weekend series with Philadelphia was postponed…Toronto spent the weekend working out in Nationals Park in Washington, D.C…The Blue Jays played a four-game, home-and-home series with Nationals last week…All four games were at Nationals Park, and Toronto served as the “home” team for the final two games.
Interleague Play: The Blue Jays fell to 2-3 (.400) in Interleague Play this season following tonight’s loss…Despite the loss, they are still just one victory shy of their Interleague win total in 20 games last season…Toronto’s 3-17 record against National League opponents in 2019 produced a .150 winning percentage, the third lowest all-time, trailing the 2010 Pirates and 2012 Rockies, who both went 2-13 (.133)…The Blue Jays’ 17 total losses in Interleague play last season were the most by any team in a single season.
Matt Shoemaker: Made his 100 career start tonight and allowed six hits and six runs over 4.2 innings to take the loss…The outing was the first of his career against Atlanta, and he has now pitched against 21 of the 30 major league teams.
Vlad Guerrero Jr.: Logged his first two doubles of the season and his second multi-hit game…Went 2-for-5 on July 26 at Tampa Bay…He opened the season batting just .172/.200/.276 with five hits in 29 at-bats.
RISP: The Blue Jays went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position tonight and are 10-for-54 (.185) in such situations through eight games…Toronto’s .185 average with runners in scoring position is third lowest in the majors, ahead of just Philadelphia (.179) and Detroit (.143).
Runs: Atlanta plated 10 men tonight and have scored a majors-most 69 runs on the season…Only one other team in the majors entered play with as many as 60 runs scored, the Padres with 64.
Max Fried Interleague: Turned in his second consecutively quality start, holding the Blue Jays to four hits and one run over 6.0 innings to earn his second win of the season…Fried has never lost an Interleague game in his career, going 5-0 with a 2.08 ERA (7 ER/30.1 IP) in five starts against the American League, striking out 37 in 30.1 innings (10.98 SO/9.0 IP)…Fried is one of just five pitchers since the advent of Interleague Play in 1997 to open their career with at least five straight victories against the opposing league, joining Justin Verlander (7 straight), Corey Kluber (6), Brett Tomko (6) and Francisco Liriano (5).
Max Fried Pickoffs: Fried allowed a first-inning single to Teoscar Hernández and immediately picked Hernández off first base, his second pickoff of the season…Fried’s two pickoffs are tied for most in the majors, and he’s needed just three pick-off attempts to do so…Since his major league debut on August 8, 2017, Fried’s 12 pickoffs are tied for most in the majors, and he has been successful on 18% (12-for-65) of his attempts…In that same span, the rest of baseball has picked off 645 runners on 37,859 attempts (0.017%).
Early Leads: Matt Adams opened the scoring with a home run leading off the second inning to give the Braves a lead…Atlanta has scored first in every game this season in which the opposing pitcher was not New York’s Jacob deGrom, and improved to 8-2 when doing so….The Braves went 75-26 (.743) last season in games they scored first, the second-best record in the National League...Only Los Angeles (72-21, .774) was better.
Leading After Four: Atlanta lead, 2-0, going into the fifth inning and held on to win, improving to 6-0 when leading after four this season…Braves pitchers held a lead after the fourth inning 77 times last season and the Braves went 71-6 (.922) in those games, easily the best record in baseball…No other team in baseball won even 90% of their games when holding a lead entering the fifth inning in 2019...Houston ranked second, going 76-11 (.874) when leading after the fourth.
Ronald Acuña Jr: Reached base four more times tonight, walking twice, doubling and logging an eighth-inning single… Acuña Jr. has batted .400/.500/.750 in his last five games, after going 4-for-28 (.143) with only one extra-base hit and 14 strikeouts in seven games to open the season…His double and single tonight left the bat at 104.5 and 102.1 mph, respectively, and each of his last seven hits have had exit velocities over 100 miles per hour.
Training Room: Matt Adams left tonight’s game in the bottom of the fifth inning with left hamstring tightness…Prior to his exit, he drove his second home run of the season out to center field.