Braves rally in extras to defeat the Rockies, 3-1

Max Fried turned in another brilliant performance while the Atlanta Braves finally broke through in the 10th for a 3-1 win over the Colorado Rockies.

The Braves threatened in the first, but ultimately came away empty handed. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Dansby Swanson led off the game with singles to put runners at the corner with no one out. Marcell Ozuna followed with a fly ball to left, but it wasn’t deep enough to score Acuña. With Austin Riley in the box, Swanson stole second. Acuña broke for home on the throw down, but was thrown out at the plate for the second out. Chad Kuhl then issued back-to-back walks to Riley and Matt Olson to load the bases, but Travis d’Arnaud flew out to leave the runners stranded.

Swanson reached on an infield single to start the third but was thrown out by Elias Diaz. Acuña and Swanson were both 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts before both were thrown on their 10th attempt.

While Atlanta’s offense got off to a slow start, Fried certainly did not. Fried retired the first nine hitters he faced and needed just 29 pitches to navigate the first three frames.

Connor Joe led off the fourth with a single, but Fried sat down the next three hitters in order to keep the game scoreless.

Fried retired six straight after Joe’s single before Randal Grichuk ended the streak with a leadoff double in the sixth. However, Fried retired Diaz and Joe on groundouts and then Charlie Blackmon to pop out to short to strand Grichuk.

The Braves threatened again in the eighth but were once again unable to cash in. Acuña reached on an infield single with one out and then moved up to second on a two-out single by Ozuna. However, Riley grounded out harmlessly to first to end the inning.

Fried came back out for the eighth and issued a one-out walk to Ryan McMahon, but got Grichuk to fly out and then struck out Diaz to the end the inning.

Fried turned in quite a performance allowing two hits and a walk to go along with four strikeouts over eight shutout innings. He threw 102 pitches with 72 going for strikes.

A.J. Minter struck out two in a perfect ninth to send the game to extra innings scoreless.

The Braves were finally able to break through in the 10th. Adam Duvall began the inning at second base and was unable to advance to third on a tapper in front of the plate by Michael Harris. Acuña worked a walk and then Swanson was hit in the hand by a pitch from Carlos Estevez to load the bases. With Ozuna at the plate, Estevez air mailed a pitch all the way to the back stop that scored Duvall to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.

Ozuna went down on strikes and the Rockies elected to walk Riley to load the bases. Left-hander Lucas Gilbreath replaced Estevez and then allowed a two-run opposite field single to Olson that increased the lead to 3-0.

William Contreras worked a walk to load the bases again, but Albies struck out to end the inning. The home half of the 10th wasn’t without drama. Kenley Jansen struck out Brendan Rogers for the first out but then allowed an opposite field single to Yonathan Daza that scored C.J. Cron to make it 3-1. Jansen then got Jose Iglesias to ground into a force out for the second out. Jansen then struck out McMahon to end the game.

The win gives Atlanta their first three-game winning streak of the season and improves their record to 26-27 on the season. The series will continue Saturday with Spencer Strider matching up against Kyle Freeland.