Max Fried’s strong outing leads Braves over Twins

MINNEAPOLIS – As the skies opened up and the rain came down in sheets at Target Field on Monday, Max Fried had one thing on his mind — getting back out on the mound.

Fried pitched one inning before the Twins and Braves waited out an 86-minute rain delay. Once the game resumed, Fried went back out and threw four more effective innings to earn his first victory since June 23 as the Braves kicked off a three-game series at Target Field with a 10-6 win over the Twins.

Starting pitchers usually don’t return to the mound after such a lengthy delay, but Fried said he felt too good to shut it down, so he did what he could to stay loose while the massive storm cell blew through the Twin Cities.

“I felt really good. I wanted to keep going and I knew if [the delay] was around an hour, I could make it through playing catch in the tunnel and just getting ready. Once they gave us a [time to resume the game] I knew it was close enough, so I just tried to do my best to be able to get through five and not put too much on our bullpen,” said Fried, who threw 15 pitches in the first inning before the game was interrupted. “I probably threw 10 to 15 balls twice, and then once we got a time, I was able to kind of plan out when I was going to be able to throw a bullpen outside.”

With the team kicking off a seven-game road trip — which concludes with a pivotal four-game series at Philadelphia — the last thing the Braves wanted was a game in which they needed eight innings from the bullpen. Fried made sure that didn’t happen.

“That would’ve taken a big bite out of that bullpen for a while there, been hard to catch up, so those [innings] were big, and good for him,” manager Brian Snitker said. “I put it in his court, just ‘Whatever you feel like.’ He said, ‘I want to go. I don’t care how long we wait.’”

The outing is the latest sign that Fried is heading in the right direction after missing three weeks with a forearm injury. After a rocky return from the IL, when he gave up five earned runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Marlins on Aug. 4, each start since has been slightly better than the last – five innings, four earned runs at Colorado; 5 1/3 innings, three earned runs at San Francisco; and seven innings, two earned runs vs. the Phillies on Aug. 21.

“He kind of turned the corner the last start against the Phillies,” Snitker said. “I mean, it was like him again. It was Max. And tonight, too. That was more of what we expect out of Max, so it’s been good. It took him a while to get back after the IL stint, and his stuff tonight was really good.”

When he returned from the rain delay, Fried retired the first 10 batters he faced. A throwing error by shortstop Orlando Arcia opened the door for the Twins to score two unearned runs in the fifth inning. But with two outs and two runners on, Fried ended his night by blowing a four-seam fastball past Royce Lewis at 96.8 mph, his fastest pitch of the night, for his seventh strikeout.

“I haven’t seen that velocity in a while, even in the first inning, so I think that’s why he felt so good and wanted to keep going,” Snitker said.

It helped that Fried had an eight-run cushion when he returned to the game. The Braves ambushed Twins starter Bailey Ober with four runs in the first and five more in the second. Matt Olson homered, doubled and drove in five runs in that span. He added another double later, and Whit Merrifield tied a career high with five of the team’s 13 hits.

But Fried’s desire to get back on the mound wasn’t lost on his teammates.

“We know that he always wants the ball,” Olson said. “I personally thought that someone was going to tell him no. But I thought it was cool. He’s in here staying warm, staying loose and ready to go. And he came out and threw well, too.”