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Braves vs Diamondbacks: Max Fried hopes to get right, secure series win

After an extremely fun walk-off win in the 10th inning that may turn out to be Pyrrhic, Max Fried will hope to put his brutal first outing of the season behind him and help the team to victory as Spencer Strider’s short and medium-term availability is in question.

Fried has all of the reasons in the world to want to come in and dominate this game, as if being a competitive person isn’t enough. He’s in a contract year, had arguably his worst major league start last outing (although with a huge bad call that derailed it), and his team’s co-ace is undergoing an elbow MRI, which is as ominous as it gets. He will face a good team in the Diamondbacks, but when he is right he is one of the best pitchers in the world. Let’s hope we get that, instead of him struggling with command as he did last time out. Fried’s first outing ended after less than 1 full inning in Philly, giving up 3 runs and 3 walks before getting pulled due to pitch count concerns. Max having his command early will be big in this game.

On the Arizona side, Brandon Pfaadt will take the mound. Pfaadt has the profile of a back-end starter, as he has decent strikeout and walk numbers, but has a ERA/FIP/xFIP that tends to sit in the mid-4s due to his high fly ball rate that translates to giving up a lot of home runs. If you’re reading that thinking “well, that sounds like it could be very fun for us and unfortunate for him against this Braves’ lineup”, we are on the same page. Of course, having said that, he’ll probably throw 7 shutout innings, but on paper this is a very juicy matchup for the Braves’ bats. Pfaadt does have a pretty good sweeper that he will use around 30% of the time, but the problem is that the rest of his pitches (four-seamer, changeup, and sinker) are all extremely hittable. This is quite a lopsided pitching matchup on paper.

One thing I would like to see is Ronald Acuna get going at the plate a bit. He has been hitting the ball into the ground too much in these first few games and has seen more than his fair share of strikeouts (although with some brutal called third strikes). Facing a fly-ball pitcher like Pfaadt at home could be exactly what Ronald needs to get into his groove and start hitting the ball in the air.

Max Fried is one of the best pitchers in the game and will be looking to bounce back, while the Braves offense loves to crush and faces a pitcher that seems fairly crushable…this could be a very fun game to watch for Atlanta fans.