ATLANTA – As the Braves cherish the division title, Max Fried wanted to continue the stupendous performance shown the night before by Charlie Morton.
“I think this has just alleviated any feelings of stress or anxiety, just knowing that he worked and had such a good opening when the stakes were so high,” Fried said. “I just wanted to get on with this.”
Fried finished seven solid innings, Austin Riley drove in three runs and Atlanta beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2 on Wednesday night to move closer to a division title win.
The Braves have won nine of 11 games and reduced their “magic number” to one game for the NL East pennant.
Philadelphia, which fell four and a half games behind in the standings with its third loss in a row, will be eliminated from the postseason if it suffers one more slip or if Atlanta wins another game.
Both teams conclude the series on Thursday. Then each will have three commitments left in the campaign.
Morton covered seven scoreless innings Tuesday, also defeating the Phillies.
“This has been great,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Last night it was Charlie, and now Max, who was coming off a nine-inning complete game.”
Fried (14-7) improved to 7-0 with a 1.46 ERA in his last 11 starts, and the Braves are 10-1 in those games. The left-hander accepted two runs – one earned – and four hits, without walking and with six strikeouts.
Aaron Nola (9-9) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings. He has a 6.00 ERA in six starts this month.
For the Phillies, Venezuelans Odubel Herrera 4-2 with a run scored, Ronald Torreyes 3-1 with an RBI. The Dominican Jean Segura 4-0 with an RBI.
For the Braves, Cuban Jorge Soler 3-2 with two runs scored. Puerto Rican Eddie Rosario 3-1 with a run scored and an RBI.
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