Sean Murphy got some good news regarding his injury status, as the Braves dominated the Phillies without him, despite Max Fried’s struggles. Fried should have escaped the first inning on a pitch that was clearly a strike and would have struck out the third out of the inning, but instead it became arguably the worst start of his career, not making it even one full inning. Fortunately, the combination of Jesse Chavez, Tyler Matzek, and Dylan Lee was able to cover 6.1 innings of 1-run ball, with Pierce Johnson and Raisel Iglesias each pitching in a scoreless frame of their own. It is absolutely tremendous that a 0.2 inning start neither resulted in a heavily taxed bullpen, nor a loss, especially in a stretch of 19 games in 20 days.
Braves News
Sean Murphy has a grade 1 oblique strain, which is very good news, given the possible range of diagnoses.
The Braves’ offense and bullpen rallied to pick up Max Fried, who struggled but also was the victim of a highly consequential and bad ball-strike call.
MLB News
Cubs’ Justin Steele exited his first start early and is now expected to miss all of April with a hamstring strain.
Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu has a fractured foot and will miss at least a couple weeks.
Twins’ Anthony Desclafani will be out for the season the season, getting flexor tendon surgery.
The Braves currently have a 1 game lead over the Nationals in the NL East after 2 games, due to a late Nationals comeback win on Saturday, but the Mets and Marlins (and obviously Phillies) have started the season 0-2.
