Max Fried doesn't deserve to hold all the blame for Braves early exit from playoffs

It's no secret that the Atlanta Braves have struggled in their last few postseason appearances. 2024 was no different as the team's injury woes followed them into the playoffs. Chris Sale was the latest victim as back spasms kept him off of the Wild Card roster.

The Braves were lucky to make it into the playoffs at all but with Atlanta having to depend on their best arms to even get there, it set them up in a bad spot for the first game. AJ Smith-Shawver, who only pitched one game in the bigs all season, was called upon for a game one start. That didn't go well but the Braves bullpen stepped in and kept it close. However, the team's putrid offense with RISP failed them.

This led to Max Fried having to put his best foot forward in game two or the Padres would hand Atlanta another early exit. Fried's final regular season start with the Braves was a masterpiece as he completed 8.2 scoreless innings with three walks, two strikeouts, and nine strikeouts. This gave him a 3.25 ERA for the season which was fifth-best in the National League.

Unfortunately, that success did not follow him into his start against the Padres. Atlanta lost game two of their series in San Diego by a 5-4 final. One inning of horrible luck and clutch hitting by the Padres doomed him and the Braves.

Many fans have placed the blame on Max's shoulder, which isn't fair to him. San Diego didn't hit the ball out of the infield until the second inning and that set Max up for failure. The offense did its best to fight back but failed opportunities with runners on base earlier in the game caused them to run out of time.

A comebacker hit Fried off the bat of Fernando Tatis Jr. on the third pitch of the game and didn't help his cause. However, he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and the Braves kept their 1-0 lead.

Max looked like he would exit the second inning unscathed as he got the first two outs easily but a homer by Kyle Higashioka set the stage for a five-run inning by the Padres. San Diego eventually broke things open with back-to-back extra-base hits and put Atlanta down 5-1.

Fried not being unable to escape the inning ultimately hurt the Braves and he knew that. He stated after the game, "It's deflating and frustrating knowing that we played a good enough game to ultimately win, but I put us in too big of a hole, and lost it... It’s definitely a tough one to swallow.”

Fried shouldn't hold all of the blame because the Padres had five hits that never left the infield. He got the ball on the ground like he needed to and his BABIP in game two was .583 with a 53% groundball rate. The Padres benefitted from some lucky bounces and defense being unable to make plays on a couple of dribblers.

Atlanta's offense had a chance to score at least one run in the sixth inning as they had runners on first and third. Matt Olson had the opportunity to tie the game or at least get the team within two runs. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the job done as the Braves woes with RISP continued. Atlanta's most dangerous bats didn't show up in this series and they should share some of the blame.

Michael Harris II did everything he could in game two to help the team and his eighth-inning home run got the team within a run of San Diego but the next three batters went 1-2-3 to end the threat and it was too late at that point and Atlanta was bounced from the playoffs.

It's easy to place blame on Fried as he's struggled heavily in the playoffs his entire career. His start in Game Six of the 2021 World Series is his best and what most remember him for. Unfortunately, he's just not been able to be as good in the playoffs.

That allowed him to be an easy scapegoat for Atlanta's loss on Wednesday. While it's fair to point out that if he hadn't allowed five runs to score, the Braves may have won the game, he also suffered from a bit of bad luck. Unfortunately, his potential final start with Atlanta went as poorly as it did.

More from House That Hank Built