Braves’ up-and-coming Max Fried thanks the advice of veterans Chris Sale and Charlie Morton

ATLANTA — Max Fried had an 18.00 ERA after his first two starts. Now the Braves left-hander has a 2.91 ERA and a real chance to make the All-Star team for the second time in three years.

He credits his veteran rotation mates Chris Sale and Charlie Morton for helping him get back on his feet and refocus after a brutal start to the season. It’s another example of how smart Fried is – smart enough to listen to people who have been around much longer and have overcome many ups and downs.

“They bring a lot of knowledge and experience, you can’t get enough of that,” said Fried, who has allowed one or no earned runs in six of his last nine games, before starting Friday in the opener of the highly anticipated home series against the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies.

Fried has a 1.92 ERA and a paltry .486 opponent average in his last 12 starts, and the Braves are happy to have him face the Phillies in a more important series than most in July. The Braves are in danger of falling behind the Phillies by double digits again before the All-Star break. The Phillies are playing without injured stars Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and JT Realmuto, but still keep Atlanta more than an arm’s length behind in the standings.

After a recent 7-1 win by the Braves, Philly’s lead shrank from 10 games to 6, now back to 9 after Atlanta lost seven of its last 12 games. The Braves have just lost two of three home games against the San Francisco Giants, including a 4-2 loss on Thursday night.

The Braves have a dismal 3-27 record in games in which they have allowed three or more runs since May 1, and have lost 27 straight games in which they have allowed four or more runs. Their last such victory was 5-4 at Houston on April 17. That’s astonishing.

Snitker on the Philly series: “I don’t think it’s all or nothing this weekend. We want to win this series. It’s a division rival, they’re always big. And so many teams from our division are up there too. So it’s a big series. That’s why you play it, to get series like this.”

— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 5, 2024

Morton didn’t pitch badly Thursday, allowing four runs (three earned) in 5 1/3 innings, but he did allow two cutters over the plate that were pulverized into home runs in the fourth inning, a two-run shot by Heliot Ramos and a 111 mph bases-empty liner two batters later by Matt Chapman.

“If I’m objective, on a night like tonight, it’s not because I’m 40 years old that I allowed two home runs,” Morton said. “It’s because I threw two cutters where they shouldn’t have been thrown. And in that situation, you could have thrown better throws. Could I have placed them better? Sure. Could I have gotten the ball back? Probably. But the reason that happened is because I threw my worst throw.”

The Braves scored two runs on three hits and a sacrifice fly in the first inning against Logan Webb, who limited them to four hits in the remaining seven innings. The Braves have lost eight of Morton’s last 12 starts, although his respectable 3.84 ERA during that span shows how disappointing Atlanta’s offense has been.

The lineup has been hampered by injuries and several slumps from hitters like Matt Olson, last year’s MLB home run and RBI leader. Four games into this season, Olson has a .241 batting average with a .741 OPS, 12 home runs and 98 strikeouts. In his last 16 games, he has one home run, three RBIs and 25 strikeouts.

So the Braves will now turn to Fried, one of three potential All-Star starters – along with Sale and Reynaldo López – who have played a big part in keeping the Braves afloat during an extended period when their offense was struggling. After making the worst consecutive starts of his career to begin the season, Fried has a 2.08 ERA and a .196 opponent average in 14 starts since then.

“I learn something new every day from Charlie and Chris,” Fried said, “just by being open and trying to soak up the information and ask them questions. Not being afraid, not being intimidated and just saying, ‘Hey, this is something you’ve been through at some point in your career,’ and just being able to use the information that they have and shortcut that curve for me instead of going through it. all of the bad.”

Fried paused for a moment. He’s 30, has experienced a lot and has been one of the most successful pitchers in baseball since his first season as a full-time starter in 2019. But the experience of Morton, 40, and Sale, 35, is on a whole new level, they are the graduating class of pitcher, and both are eager to pass on everything they’ve learned in a total of 31 major league seasons.

Fried is glad his locker is between them in the Braves clubhouse. It’s a huge resource that he uses liberally. Morton appreciated what Fried said, but made it clear that he didn’t think Fried needed much advice.

“Yeah, we’re friends,” Morton said. “I think he trusts us. And I think he has enough of an idea of ​​what he’s trying to do, and he’s steadfast in his own way, that he can filter information from other guys. Yeah, I think it’s a nice thing to have some older guys. But actually, he’s figured out what he’s trying to do.”

Fried has the 10th-lowest ERA among MLB qualifiers before Friday and ranks fifth among NL qualifiers. Sale (2.71) is second among NL qualifiers behind Ranger Suarez (2.27) of the Phillies, who also have the league’s third-lowest (Zack Wheeler, 2.74) and sixth-lowest (Cristopher Sánchez, 2.96) ERAs.

Fried gave up three walks and three runs in his first start without getting out of the first inning, and in his second start he allowed 10 hits and eight runs in 4 2/3 innings. Then he flipped the switch.

“I just executed it a little better,” said Fried, who had talked a lot with Morton and Sale in the early weeks of the season. “I left some throws over the middle of the plate and I walked a lot of guys. … I think it was more about executing my throws and adding variety. I didn’t keep the guys off balance enough.”

He kept an eye on things, which wasn’t easy.

“It’s not like I sat there and said I need to reinvent myself or back off or do anything that sweeping,” Fried said. “It was just, OK, let’s objectively look at what happened and make some changes and adjustments and not worry about it. It’s about understanding that it’s in the past and focusing on what you can control. Because if you throw at what happened the last start, two starts, three starts or whatever, you’re not focusing on today’s game. Things can get out of control very quickly.”

Suárez starts Saturday, but the Braves will miss Wheeler and Sánchez in this series. Fried will face Phillies veteran Aaron Nola (3.43) and Suárez will face Braves rookie Spencer Schwellenbach. In the series finale, López will face Phillies rookie Michael Mercado in his second start.

López’s ERA of 1.83 is the best in the major leagues among pitchers with 60 or more innings, but he has not pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA rankings; his 83 2/3 innings are four outs short of the team’s one inning per game minimum.

If López had those four extra outs, the Braves and Phillies would have six of the current seven best qualifying ERAs. And it’s possible that any of those Braves starters could hear their names called Sunday when the All-Star pitchers and reserves for the NL and AL teams are announced.

Sale made the AL All-Star teams seven straight times through 2018, but hasn’t returned due to various injuries that have hampered him every season since then – until now. He acknowledged that it would be special to return to the All-Star game in his first season with the Braves, but he’ll likely have two more starts before the All-Star break and wants to focus on that for now.

“I would welcome it,” Sale said of his possible participation in the All-Star Game on July 16 in Texas, “but we have to play baseball and I don’t want to be distracted by all that stuff.”

The last time the Braves had three starting pitchers on the All-Star team was in 1997, when Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were joined by Denny Neagle, who led the NL with 20 wins that season and finished third in the Cy Young voting behind Pedro Martinez and Maddux.

The Braves players are also lobbying hard to get 40-year-old reliever Jesse Chavez on their All-Star team for the first time.

“It would be a blast to see Chavey in the All-Star Game,” Sale said. “What a great story. Look at his numbers, they’re there. … And then when you dig a little deeper – who he is in the locker room and who he is as a teammate – you’re not going to find a guy who gets beat harder.”

“Everyone in this clubhouse wants him to be there. It would be a great story. I just hope it continues like this.”

(Photo by Max Fried: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)