NORTH PORT, Fla. – Max Fried made his second start of the spring, last Friday at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and came out of it with mixed feelings.
The left-hander faced the minimum through two innings with two strikeouts, and a walk to Gilberto Celestino, who would go on to be thrown out trying to steal second.
That third inning is when Fried ran into some trouble.
Canaan Smith-Njigba led off with a solo home run to deep left field followed by two singles later in the inning. The defence bailed out Fried, the 2022 all-star, with a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame.
The 2022 NL Cy Young finalist gave up back-to-back singles and then a walk in the fourth before Braves manager Brian Snitker ended his day.
“First two innings were pretty good, second two innings weren’t very good it was just one of those days,” said the left-hander, outside the Braves’ dressing room at CoolToday Park. “Physically, as far as my body, I feel great.
“It’s just more of the fine tuning, sharpness, walking guys, getting ahead in counts. The little nuances that you need to be able to put yourself in to win baseball games.”
Fried’s first outing came Feb. 26 against Baltimore, allowing no runs in two innings and striking out two.
“My last game I only threw one (curveball) so I was just trying to really make it a pitch of emphasis,” he said after outing number two.
Fried is coming off a 2023 season where he only saw 77 innings. He got pulled from his opening day start with a hamstring strain, followed by a forearm strain in May resulting in over two months out of action.
Towards the end of the season, he dealt with a nagging blister issue.
NOTES: The Braves and a split-squad Bucs side tied 6-6 in Fried’s second start … Fried is a free-agent after this season.