Max Fried, Braves look to finish off a sweep of the Diamondbacks

After clinching a series win with a 6-2 victory Saturday night, the Atlanta Braves will try to finish off a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks when they wrap up a three-game series Sunday afternoon at Truist Park. Atlanta took Friday’s opener 5-2 and then got homers from William Contreras and Matt Olson Saturday along with a good bounce back performance by Ian Anderson. Sunday’s game will feature a good pitching matchup between Atlanta’s Max Fried and Arizona’s Merrill Kelly.

Fried will make his 21st start of the season in Sunday’s finale. Fried allowed nine hits, three runs and struck out eight in six innings in his last start against the Phillies. Six of the nine runs he has allowed this month have come in his last two starts. Fried has been the model of consistency all season and has logged at least six innings in six of his last seven starts.

Kelly has been lights out in July and is coming off of one of his best starts of the season where he allowed just three hits and struck out seven over eight shutout innings against the Giants. Kelly hasn’t faced the Braves this season and hasn’t had much success in the past having allowed nine runs in 13 innings in two career starts against Atlanta.

While Austin Riley has garnered most of the headlines for his offensive performance in July, Matt Olson has quietly put together a good month as well. Olson had two hits Saturday, including his 21st home run of the season which staked Atlanta to an early lead. Olson has nine home runs since July 8 which is second in the majors over that span trailing only Aaron Judge. He is hitting .267/.330/.628 with 13 extra-base hits and has driven in 24 runs in his last 22 games.

Sunday’s game has a scheduled start time of 1:35 p.m. ET and can be seen on Bally Sports Southeast.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, July 31, 1:35 p.m. ET

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, Georgia

TV: Bally Sports Southeast

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan