Max Fried tosses three scoreless and hitless innings as Braves shut out Twins, 4-0

While it’s still March, Max Fried came out of today’s game looking like he’s ready for April. Fried threw three quick-and-easy scoreless innings for the Braves today as they visited the Twins for a little bit of spring training action.

Both teams spent most of this game scoreless and searching for runs, but the Braves certainly got close to scoring in the first inning. Matt Olson in particular got really close, as he launched a ball to straightaway center that looked destined to go over the fence for his first home run of spring. Unfortunately for the new first baseman in town, Byron Buxton is pretty good at this whole “defense” thing and managed to make a fantastic catch at the wall to rob Olson of a two-run dinger.

That would-be homer was the closest that both teams got to scoring for a very long period in this game. Max Fried made his first start of spring training today and let’s just say that he looked like the Max Fried that we all know and love. Fried only threw 25 pitches, but 17 of those pitches went for strikes and Fried faced the minimum through three innings of work. The only blemish on Fried’s record today happened in his very first pitch, as he plunked Byron Buxton. Other than that, you would never know that this was mid-March with the way Max Fried was looking on the mound today.

Huascar Ynoa was the second man to pitch for the Braves today and he certainly picked up the baton and kept things rolling in the right direction. Ynoa matched Fried’s three scoreless innings with three scoreless innings of his own. While Ynoa still gave up two hits, he was never really in any sort of trouble while he was on the mound today. Considering how busy the Braves are going to be to start the season, it’s definitely good to see Ynoa also firing on all cylinders since he’s going to be a vital part of this rotation this season.

Once the seventh inning rolled around, we finally got to see some runs put on the board. The good news was that it was the Braves who were doing the offensive work and it was particularly good news to see Michael Harris involved in it. After he picked up a single in the second inning, Harris returned to the basepaths with a walk in the seventh inning and also added on a stolen base, to boot. Eventually, Jordan Cowan was able to bring both Michael Harris and CJ Alexander home with a double down the right field line and that ended a productive day for Harris. While his chances of making the big league team are pretty slim, Harris continues to show why he’s still a prospect worth getting excited about.

Another prospect to get excited about is Spencer Strider, who definitely made an impression during his time on the mound. In the seventh inning, Strider picked up a couple of strikeouts while also reaching 100 miles-per-hour on the radar gun. Strider returned for the eighth and continued to hurl some easy gas at his Twins’ opposition at the plate. He’s also sporting a pretty crazy mustache right now, so he’s really got it all going on at the moment.

The game eventually ended with the Braves picking up a 4-0 win over the Braves. In all, it was definitely encouraging to see both Max Fried and Huascar Ynoa locked in. It was also really nice seeing Michael Harris and Spencer Strider make some waves on their own. The best part of all is that nobody got injured, and now it’s time to look forward to Kyle Wright getting the start for tomorrow’s game.