Braves nearly no-hit Mariners, then lose in the 9th
Braves nearly no-hit Mariners, then lose in the 9th
It’s not every night you get dueling no-hitters for six innings at the ballpark, but that is exactly what Max Fried and Bryce Miller did on Monday night in chilly Seattle.
It seemed the Braves were on their way to a 1-0 victory, but AJ Minter entered the ninth and promptly surrendered a single and upper-deck bomb to Mitch Garver to lose, 2-1.
Fried, coming off a 92-pitch complete game shutout, was superb once again over six innings of no-hit ball. He struck out seven and walked two over 100 pitches. After a disastrous first two starts of the year, Fried has lowered his ERA to 4.02 on the season with an even better 3.32 xFIP. He seems to have found his groove.
Pierce Johnson worked a perfect seventh in relief of Fried, striking out the side while throwing 17 curveballs out of 18 pitches total.
The no-hit bid died in the eighth as Joe Jimenez entered and allowed a single that skipped just under the glove of Ozzie Albies. Atlanta’s no-hitter drought will last another day as the last one came three decades ago in 1994. Shout out Kent Mercker.
Seattle loaded the bases with just one out in the eighth, but Jimenez Houdini’d his way out of the jam with a shallow pop fly off the bat of Julio Rodriguez and a strikeout of Mitch Haniger with a wicked slider off the plate.
Raisel Iglesias was not available on Monday evening after pitching both games over the weekend, so Minter got the ninth inning. Within seven pitches, it was over.
The Braves could not touch young righty Bryce Miller for most of the evening, who was perfect through 5 1⁄3 innings before walking Travis d’Arnaud. Miller promptly ended that mini threat with an inning-ending double play to keep his no-hit bid in tact through six.
The seventh inning was a different story, however. Ronald Acuña Jr. singled on a ball that deflected off the shortstop’s glove — even if fielded cleanly, it would have required a perfect throw to beat Acuña at first and keep the no-no alive — and Acuña then stole second and third base on consecutive pitches to generate the first scoring threat of the night. Ozzie Albies gapped a ball to right-center to score the first and only run of the night for Atlanta.
The three-game series continues in Seattle on Tuesday evening and it should be a dandy. Reynaldo Lopez (2-0, 0.72 ERA, 2.74 FIP) will look to continue his splendid start against Luis Castillo (2-4, 4.15 ERA, 3.24 FIP), who has been equally impressive but has run into some poor luck in the early going. First pitch is set for 9:40 p.m. ET.