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MILWAUKEE – – Max Fried says his strategy in pressure situations is to avoid taking too much advantage of the moment.
The approach that has worked so well for the Atlanta Braves left-hander in the regular season is also paying off in the playoffs.
Fried pitched six clean innings and the Atlanta relievers’ box held on after manager Brian Snitker’s quick hook, sending the Braves to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 on Saturday to tie their NL Division series in a match each.
The best-of-five series travel to Atlanta for Game 3 on Monday.
“He was phenomenal – anything you could ask for,” said Austin Riley of Atlanta, who scored in the sixth inning. “He came out, shelled the area. He’s been doing this since the All-Star break.
Once Fried was taken out, it became riskier for the Braves.
The Brewers tied the game against the Atlanta relievers box in each of the last three innings, but failed to get a hit. They couldn’t do much against Fried, who allowed just one earned run in 29 innings in his last four starts.
Fried struck out nine hits, gave three hits, and didn’t step anyone. The Brewers didn’t get a runner in scoring position until Willy Adames scored a brace with two outs in the sixth, and Fried responded by striking out Eduardo Escobar.
“He’s just a really good pitcher, hitting a lot of shots,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s a tough night for the offense.”
Fried has gone 7-0 with a 1.46 ERA in his last 11 regular season starts while throwing his best down the home stretch.
He arguably produced Atlanta’s greatest pitcher performance of the regular season on September 25. The Braves lost to San Diego earlier in the day when resuming a suspended game. Hours later, Fried threw a three-hit shutout to stabilize the Braves division’s lead.
Fried delivered again on Saturday as the Braves rebounded from a 2-1 loss in Game 1.
“You’re just trying to focus and realize it’s the same game we’ve been playing all year,” Fried said. “The stakes might be a little higher, but you go out there and pitch what you’re supposed to do, it’s going to win out.”
It was the second consecutive exceptional outing for a Braves starter in a series dominated by pitching.
Atlanta’s Charlie Morton held Milwaukee scoreless in six innings on Friday, but gave Rowdy Tellez a two-run homerun in the seventh inning on his 85th and final pitch.
Snitker made sure Fried didn’t go that far. Fried had pitched 81 pitches when he was put out for a pinched hitter in the start of the seventh.
“He bled it there on the sixth,” Snitker said. “He went through the meat of their roster and spent what I thought was a lot of energy there, in a really big baseball playoff moment. Charlie has been through this 100 times. Max is just cutting his teeth on it.
The move almost gave Atlanta two more points. After batter Joc Pederson’s single, Jorge Soler hit a deep drive that left fielder Christian Yelich caught in front of the wall.
Then the Brewers made it interesting against the Atlanta reliever box.
After Luke Jackson struck out the first two hitters he faced in the seventh, Luis Urías scored a single and Lorenzo Cain walked. Tyler Matzek replaced Jackson and got off the hook by removing pinched hitter Tyrone Taylor.
Jace Peterson walked on and Kolten Wong scored to start the bottom of the eighth, but Matzek managed to pull through by dropping Adames, Escobar and Avisaíl García in order.
Will Smith worked around a starting walk to Yelich and a single by Urías in the ninth, securing a flyout and a double run on the ground for his first career stoppage in the playoffs.
“I thought in those three runs we had runners on base,” said Counsell. “We had a few shots to hit. And we just fouled them up.
Four Atlanta pitchers struck out 14 and combined on a six batting.
The Braves took the lead for good with two runs in the third over Brandon Woodruff. They were just inches away from getting a third point in this set.
Soler hit a brace with one out on the left field line and scored on the Freddie Freeman single. Albies led Freeman with an RBI brace that started from yellow at the top of the right field wall.
Albies responded to the brace by doing push-ups near second base in frustration that he didn’t hit the home run.
“Tomorrow is a day off,” Albies said. “I could practice from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm That ball has to come out. “
Woodruff struck out seven strikes while allowing three runs, five hits and a walk in six innings. The All-Star right-hander had the worst support of any major league starting pitcher during the regular season, which is why he went 9-10 despite a sparkling 2.56 ERA.
OUTDOOR BASEBALL
With no rain forecast and temperatures in the 70s, Saturday marked just the third time the roof has been opened for a playoff game at American Family Field. Of the 16 playoff games at this stadium since it opened in 2001, the only others to go away were the first two games of the 2011 NL Championship Series.
NOT SO BATTY
The Braves are only hitting 0.175 (11 for 64) in the streak. Milwaukee doesn’t do much better at 0.183 (11 for 60).
FOLLOWING
RHP Ian Anderson (9-5, 3.58 ERA) throws for the Braves on Monday. The Brewers have not announced their start for Game 3.
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Follow Steve Megargee on https://twitter.com/stevemegargee
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