2024 was a turbulent season, and Max Fried certainly felt it too. In what could have been his final season in Atlanta, the southpaw got off to an unimaginably bad start to the year, then got back on his horse, got injured warming up for the All-Star Game, and then endured a series of truly frustrating starts. All of that put him and the Braves in a near-win situation tonight, and Fried delivered and then some. If this is Fried’s last start as a Brave in Atlanta, he did great, nearly throwing a Maddux to help the Braves to a 3-0 win over the Royals.

Fried finished with a K/BB ratio of 9/2 in 8 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings, but that doesn’t really tell you much about the story. That wasn’t a difficult 8 ²⁄₃ with heavily used pitches in a close game; This was Max Fried, who was almost completely in control of his craft and was astounding the Royals left and right. Fried needed just 36 pitches to get through his first nine batters, and then he had a seven-pitch fourth that included an infield single and ended with a pickoff. His short four-pitch walk to Yuli Gurriel in the fifth was part of a ten-pitch inning (including a walk), and there were only eight fried pitches in the next inning. He allowed a one-out double in the seventh, but it was still only an 11-pitch inning. He got two good-looking strikeouts in a nine-pitch effort in the eighth. Seriously, it was crazy.

In ninth place, a Maddux was easily within reach… but Fried didn’t quite cross the finish line. It took him nine pitches to get the first two outs and he had plenty of wiggle room…but up came Bobby Witt Jr., who drew a five-pitch walk. Enter Michael Massey, who was terrible against lefties but had a double early in the game, and he hit Fried’s 98th and final pitch of the night to right for a double that brought the game-winning run to the plate and put Fried out of the game threw.

Raisel Iglesias trotted out of the bullpen and had probably one of the most disappointing performances of his career, literally throwing a single pitch to Salvador Perez. The Kansas City backstop hit a generic lineout to left, and although Fried didn’t want to add another Maddux to his tally, the Braves finished the game with a 99-pitch shutout.

It’s hard to say much good about Fried tonight. He collected five strikeouts in the first round – two on the sweeper, two on the curve, one on a sinker. He then switched to his usual pitch-to-contact mode for the most part, before hitting three of four at one point. This is the Fried the Braves wanted to try at least once more in the playoffs, and his effort tonight brought them a step closer to that chance.

But you can’t win a baseball game simply by beating the other team Maddux. They also need to score a run somewhere. Luckily for the Braves, they scored three goals. They got two draws in the first against Brady Singer (both were drawn by lefty hitters), but Jorge Soler struck out to end that frame. In the fourth, Soler blasted a single through the left side, and Sean Murphy caught a very bad 0-2 sweeper from Singer and hammered it into left field for a laser two-run home run. The Braves tried to get more out of Singer in the sixth when Soler drew a one-out walk and Ramon Laureano rammed a ball to left center for a double, but Singer blasted both Murphy and Gio Urshela wide on breaking pitches, 0-2 removed from the plate.

The Braves got their third run with the bizarre “What the hell am I looking at?” fashion. Carlos Hernandez relieved Singer in his second inning with a leadoff walk to Marcell Ozuna, who advanced to second after a slow groundout. With Laureano at the plate, Ozuna made his way to third base (?!), firing a terrible throw from Perez that was airmailed into left field. Ozuna scurried home easily and then had a wild time in the dugout as his teammates practically threw him an impromptu party for stealing his first base of the year.

That being said, it was basically the Max Fried show tonight, and with the Mets losing in Milwaukee at the time of this writing, there’s a better chance now that he’ll have another chance to make his team proud he hits the free agent market.