Fried looks to remain in Maximum form as Braves take on Mariners

admin | April 29, 2024 | Other Clubs | No Comments

The West Coast swing begins, and Max Fried will aim to get the Braves off to a good start.

The Atlanta Braves are poised to begin a brief trip out West, and their best pitcher will lead the way when Atlanta faces the Seattle Mariners.

You don’t need me to tell you how brilliantly Max Fried performed in his last start; Atlanta’s starting rotation has recently improved, and no one has performed better than Fried. The top guy in Atlanta’s rotation delivered a complete game shutout against the Marlins in his last outing, so finding a way to improve on that performance will be a big assignment for him.

He’ll face a Mariners offense that hasn’t exactly been on fire this season. While they handily outscored the Marlins (who now have a startling team wRC+ of 73), Seattle’s offense isn’t exactly in juggernaut mode right now. They’re hitting.219/.298/.356, with a team wOBA of.295 and a wRC+ of 95.

So far, Josh Rojas and Cal Raleigh have been the standout performers at the plate for the Mariners, but nobody else (outside of platoon-performer Luis Urías and the currently-injured Dominic Canzone) has been tearing the cover off the ball, as evidenced by the cited team statistics. There’s a reason they’re only two games above.500 right now: it’s still good enough for first place in the AL West, but it’s not exactly a gleaming record. Nonetheless, they’ve won nine of their last twelve, which is nothing to sneeze at.

The Mariners are above water and gazing down on their Western Division rivals, owing primarily to their pitching. Seattle’s pitching staff currently has the sixth-best ERA (84) and FIP (91) in MLB. This is also not a case of the rotation or the bullpen carrying the staff; Seattle’s entire pitching staff has performed admirably thus far. Seattle’s starting today is Bryce Miller, who has already proven that he can keep a lineup quiet on any given night. He has three starts this month, allowing only one run in 19.1 innings against the Brewers, Cubs, and Reds.

Bryce Miller, however, is far from infallible. He’s allowed five home runs this season, including two against the Rangers in his most recent game. He’ll enter this game with a 15.2 percent HR/FB percentage, which isn’t ideal while facing an offense as capable as the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta did not hit any home runs against Miller last May, but they did score three runs in 6.1 innings. This appears to be a difficult challenge for the Braves, but Atlanta should be able to get things rolling against this specific pitcher.

I know I sound like a broken record when I get to this stage in my game previews, but this appears to be a very exciting game tonight. The Braves and Mariners have played some interesting games against each other in recent seasons, particularly in the 2022 series at Seattle. I believe we would all prefer a nice and quiet win for the Braves to start this road trip tonight, but it wouldn’t surprise me if things got zany and wild again in the Pacific Northwest this evening.