Atlanta starting to find consistency as Braves top Cards on Friday

The Atlanta Braves played their second complete game in a row on Friday as the offense exploded in 9-1 victory over St. Louis. 

It was a rough 5-game stretch for the Atlanta Braves as nothing seemed to be going right.

The team would build a lead or overcome a deficit just to see that wasted away by the bullpen.

It felt as if there was nothing they could do to stop the bleeding.

Fortunately for Braves fans, the previous two games have slowed the bleeding a bit.

The starting pitching has been phenomenal, the offense has capitalized with runners on base, and the bullpen has held the lead.

After Charlie Morton pitched arguably the best he has all year, Max Fried followed up with a gem of his own.

Fried tossed seven innings of 1 run, 2 hit ball with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.

The first inning was the toughest for Max, as it has been in the past, but he settled in and looked like the Max Fried we are accustomed to seeing after that.

It also helped that the Braves offense, led by Ozzie Albies, put up nine runs on Carlos Martinez and the Cardinals.

Ozzie Albies, who has been playing like a madman since moving to third in the lineup, went 3-for-5 with three RBIs on Friday.

One of those hits saw him launch a massive homer into the second deck of the Chop House.

Since replacing Ozuna in the third spot of the order, Albies has a slash line of .312/.369/.532 with a .902 OPS.

Albies also has a BABIP of .383 which is incredible and encouraging to see him putting the ball in play so often and with success.

He is also fifth in all of baseball with extra-base hits as he has 36 of them so far this year.

Ozzie has surprisingly become great protection for Freddie Freeman in the Atlanta lineup and I am here for it.

Other notable offensive performances on Friday evening:

• Freddie Freeman: 2-5, RBI, 2 runs scored
• Austin Riley: 1-3, 2 RBI, BB
• William Contreras: 2-3, RBI, BB

It was nice to see everyone getting in on the action offensively Friday and it eased my tensions as a fan.

There’s no sugar-coating how old it gets having to watch a game wondering if Atlanta can piece together a huge comeback in late-innings.

Seeing the offense come to life early and have not one but two big innings was encouraging to say the least.

Now, onto the bullpen.

With Max Fried going seven innings during Friday’s win, there was only a need for two relief appearances.

It was nice to see the bullpen get some more rest.

Between Edgar Santana and Jacob Webb, the Braves bullpen allowed no runs and only allowed 1 hit and issued just 1 walk.

That’s the kind of performances we need to see more often out of this relief core. There were no major mistakes to allow the Cardinals to creep back into the game.

With Saturday’s game being rained out due to inclement weather, the Braves will face-off with St. Louis in a double-header on Sunday afternoon.

Bryse Wilson gets the start in game one followed by Drew Smyly in game 2. Be sure to tune in to both games and cheer your team to victory.

Atlanta hopes to continue their winning ways and finally find that elusive winning streak that goes beyond 3 or 4 games.