Braves call on rested Fried
HOUSTON — At this point, they’re all fried.
Starters, openers, closers and the rest of them. So many pitching changes by the Astros and Braves, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of who’s on the mound.
“Everybody that’s in the World Series right now is gassed, everybody,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said during Monday’s day off. “Both teams, all the players. It’s been a long year.”
Fortunately for him, he can now give the ball to Max Fried.
With five full days of rest, the 27-year-old lefty will start Game 6 on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park as the Braves again tries to win their first championship since 1995. The Braves missed a major chance Sunday night, wasting an early fourrun lead at home in what became a 9-5 loss that cut their lead to three games to two.
Luis Garcia starts for the Astros. For how long, we’ll see.
It will definitely be a big ask for the AL rookie of the year candidate as he will start on just three days’ rest.
“We think that he’s the best for the job,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.
“We realize that he has a short leash, but then everybody out there has a short leash and operating on low rest or not full rest.”
Not a surprise considering both teams have employed at least five pitchers in every game so far.
Garcia pitched into the fourth inning of Game 3 on Friday night in a 2-0 road loss, allowing one run and three hits. He needed 72 pitches to go that far, walking four and striking out six.
The 24-year-old righty won the clinching Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, blanking the Red Sox on one hit over 5 ⅔ innings. He said he had no concerns about pitching on short rest.
Fried excelled in going 14-7 with a 3.04 ERA during the regular season and was sharp against the Brewers in the NL Division Series and the opener of the NLCS against the Dodgers.
But he hasn’t looked anything like that lately.
With a chance to send the Braves to the World Series, and pitching in front of family and friends at Dodger Stadium, he got tagged for five runs and eight hits in 4 ⅔ innings of Game 5.
He wasn’t any better in Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday, allowing six runs and seven hits in five innings.
“I think he’s been off a little bit the last couple times, hasn’t been himself,” Snitker said.
“I expect to see Max on top of his game tomorrow,” he said.
If it goes to Game 7, Ian Anderson would start for the Braves. He pitched five hitless innings, then was pulled from his start in Game 3.
“We’re in a good spot right now with Ian on tap,” Snitker said.
Fried would prefer to end things himself and give the Braves a whole winter to rest up as champs.
“Any time that you go out there and you don’t perform the way that you want, you don’t win, you want to go back out there and redeem yourself,” he said. “It’s probably going to be my last outing of the year, so there’s nothing to hold back.”