Thursday Braves postgame notes
Max Fried: Made his first career start against Tampa Bay and allowed three hits and one run over 6.2 innings, the longest outing by a Braves starter this season…Fried carried a perfect game through 4.2 innings before Mike Brosseau singled up the middle…The perfect game bid was the longest by a Braves starter since Fried himself pitched 5.2 perfect frames on April 4 of last season against the Cubs…Fried carried a no-hitter through 4.1 innings in his first start of this season, July 25 at New York.
Max Fried Interleague: Has never lost an Interleague game in his career, improving to 4-0 with a 2.22 ERA (6 ER/24.1 IP) in four starts against the American League…Has struck out 34 in 24.1 innings (12.58 SO/9.0 IP), and is allowing A.L. batters to hit just .204 against him.
Max Fried Pickoffs: Fried followed the first hit of the game from Tampa Bay by immediately picking Mike Brosseau off first base…Fried picked off five runners last season, tied for most in the National League and second most in baseball (CLE’s Zach Plesac, 6)…From Fried’s first season in the majors in 2017 through the end of 2019 he picked off 10 total runners, tied for sixth most in baseball, and did so on just 62 pickoff attempts (16% success rate)…In that same span, all of baseball picked off 815 batters on 49,282 attempts (0.02% success rate).
Marcell Ozuna: Reached base in all four of his plate appearances, including drawing a career high-tying three walks…Drew three bases on balls three times previously in his career, and last on April 20 of last season…Ozuna has reached base in half of his 28 plate appearances on the season, and is batting .364/.500/.773 with five extra-base hits and four RBI.
Swanson RBI: Dansby Swanson went 1-for-4 with an RBI to give him nine runs driven in on the season, second most in the majors behind Minnesota’s Nelson Cruz (11)…Swanson’s nine RBI are second most by a Braves shortstop through seven games since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966, trailing just Edgar Renteria 10 in 2006.
Bullpen: Atlanta’s bullpen allowed two hits over 2.1 scoreless innings in relief of Max Fried…Aside from Touki Toussaint allowing six earned runs in 2.2 innings of relief on July 27, Atlanta relievers have pitched to a 1.38 ERA (4 ER/26.0 IP) to open the season.
Mark Melancon: Earned his second save in as many nights to improve to 14-for-14 in save changes with Atlanta since joining the Braves at the trade deadline last season.
Home Work: The Braves have won each of their first two games at Truist Park this season after going 50-31 here in 2019, winning 50 games in their home park in a season for the first time since 2013…Atlanta’s .617 home winning percentage last season was tied for sixth highest in baseball.