Max Fried was excellent for the Braves once again, but a lifeless performance offensively led to a frustrating 1-0 loss at the hands of Brandon Pfaadt and the Arizona pitching staff.
Fried was excellent outside of a choppy fifth inning. He threw 103 pitches over six frames, giving up five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. The lone run to score against Fried was the solo homer from Suarez. His ERA on the season sits at 3.08, which is particularly impressive given the fluky first start of the season.
The Braves bats were silent for the most part. Austin Riley led off the seventh with a double, but the Olson-Ozuna-Duvall trio did nothing with it. In the eighth, there were two on and two out for Ozzie Albies, who bounced a ball to Christian Walker to end the threat.
In the 9th, Matt Olson was robbed at the wall of a possible game-tying homer. Marcell Ozuna singled to keep the game alive with two outs, but Adam Duvall grounded out to end the game.
After two wins to begin the series, it feels like the Braves left meat on the bone with a 2-2 series split. They are 51-41.
The Braves will wrap up the first half of the season in San Diego this weekend. The Padres were red-hot earlier in the month, but they enter the series on a four-game losing skid and in a virtual tie with the Mets for the final wild card spot. Spencer Schwellenbach will look to build off the best start of his career against righty Randy Vasquez, who has been pretty mediocre (4.66 ERA, 5.16 FIP, 4.54 xFIP) over 12 starts. First pitch is 9:40 p.m. ET.
