Rosario removed from game with hamstring tightness; Fried's second rehab start
The Atlanta Braves outfielder was removed from the game in the seventh inning with an apparent hamstring issue. Meanwhile, ace lefty, Max Fried, made his second rehab start for High-A Rome.
The Atlanta Braves have dealt with health issues off and on this season. Eddie Rosario has been hit or miss for the team offensively this year. During Saturday's game, he hit a home run to score the first run for the Braves.
That homer gave Atlanta their 28th-straight game with a home run. That is a franchise record and the second-longest streak in MLB history.
Eddie Rosario removed from the game in the 7th inning
However, Rosario's defense, which has always been a struggle for him, wasn't up to par during the game. Rosario had a couple of defensive miscues where the baseball got by him and allowed the White Sox to score runs.
OF Eddie Rosario was removed from tonight’s game as a precaution with right hamstring tightness.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 16, 2023
It doesn't appear that was the reason that he was removed from the game in the seventh inning. The team announced that Rosario was replaced by Kevin Pillar in left field due to right hamstring tightness. It was described as a precautionary move.
Many fans assumed Rosario was removed due to those defensive mistakes he made which is a fair opinion to hold. However, we will just have to take the team's word for it unless we are told otherwise.
Rosario is batting .255 on the season with 15 HR and 44 RBI through 278 at-bats. Atlanta is lucky to have some good outfield options to hold things down if Rosario were to miss an extended period of time.
The team will likely update his status when they have more information available. I'm sure that will be a question asked to Brian Snitker after the game ends.
Max Fried's second rehab start in Rome
In other news, Max Fried made his second rehab start on Saturday as he works his way back to the big league club. Fried pitched for High-A Rome since the team was playing a home series while Gwinnett was out of town.
Fried did well with three scoreless innings of work on 30 pitches including 2 hits, 0 walks, and 3 strikeouts. While it is just High-A baseball, Fried being that efficient and having no setbacks is very encouraging to see.
According to The Athletic's David O'Brien, finished his afternoon throwing in the bullpen to increase his pitch count load. I'm going to assume the team had him capped somewhere around 60 pitches or so.
Fried finished by throwing some in the bullpen to get his pitch count up (since his three innings were so efficient)
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 16, 2023
No news on what is next for Fried but there will likely be another rehab start for the lefty before he comes back to Atlanta. He will be a much-welcome sight whenever he does return.
Keep yourself tuned to House That Hank Built for a recap of tonight's game and any updates provided on Eddie Rosario's and Max Fried's status.