Atlanta Braves News: Max Fried returned to form against the Marlins last night with a complete-game shutout in just 92 pitches. It was Fried’s third “Maddux” of his career. A “Maddux” refers to tossing a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches. Greg Maddux pulled off such a feat 13 times in his career. Just 10 more to go for Max!

Fried had struggled with his command thus up to this point in 2024. His last start against the Marlins was his only quality start of the season but even then, he didn’t appear to hit his spots like we have grown accustomed to seeing over the years.

Fried entered last night’s start with a 7.71 ERA and left with a 4.97 ERA. He threw 69 strikes on 92 pitches and had good misses and was effective with his pitches out of the zone. It was a masterpiece last night.

Braves teammates and coaches could feel it coming

MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported that Travis d’Arnaud approached Fried a couple of days ago and said he wanted to a complete-game during the left-hander’s next outing.

Travis d’Arnaud said, “Even today, [third-base coach Matt Tuiasosopo] said he was feeling a Maddux coming.”

Max Fried changes pitch selection in 5-0 complete-game win over Marlins

Fried said after the game that he was just trying to get early contact and rely on the defense to make plays. He complimented the defensive plays the Braves made behind him. Fried earned 18 groundballs in the contest. He was video-game efficient.

Max Fried allowed just four hard-hit balls in his nine innings of work. Compare that to opposing starter Trevor Rogers‘ 12 hard-hit balls allowed to Braves hitters in 5.2 innings.

Fried’s pitch mix has been very curveball heavy this season. Last night against the Marlins, he mixed five different pitches effectively. Six if you look at Baseball Savant because it called one of his sliders a sweeper.

Max Fried’s Pitch Mix in Shutout vs. Marlins

• 4-Seam (25 pitches)
• Changeup (21 pitches)
• Sinker (16 pitches)
• Slider (16 pitches)
• Curve (14 pitches)

His fastball was averaging nearly 97 mph last night and Fried’s notorious curveball was his least used pitch. It was a surprising change. Last season, Fried relied on the curveball more than any pitch outside of his four-seam fastball at 23% of the time.

Marlins hitters had no clue what sort of pitch was about to come out of Fried’s hand last night as the 18 goundballs would indicate.

Max Fried on his slider: That’s a really good pitch, and I guess I had forgotten about it a little bit. But I was able to use it to get me back into some counts, get ahead and get some nice ground balls.”

Fried would look to continue his momentum, precision, and confusing pitch selection into his next start. He is projected to line up against the Seattle Mariners on Monday April 29th.