Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried turned in a great performance at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, going seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) while striking out 13 in an 8-3 win, drawing praise from manager Brian Snitker after the game.

“He was really good,” Brian Snitker said, via Molly Burkhardt of MLB.com. “That curveball was really, really good tonight. Really good. Two of the runs he gave up were kind of unfortunate, with the catcher's interference to load the bases [in the fourth inning]. But he did a good job pitching through all that and limiting damage, and it was a good, nice solid outing.”

Fenway Park is notoriously a tough park to pitch in, due to how close the “Green Monster” is in left field, creating a good number of weakly-hit doubles. Still, Max Fried thrived. Although Snitker pointed out the curveball, everything was working for Fried, as in addition to the 13 strikeouts, he recorded a career-high in whiffs (21) and called strikes plus whiffs (41), according to Burkhardt. Fried explained why he believes he got more swings and misses against the Red Sox in comparison to prior starts.

“I think it was just more of the location on a lot of them,” Fried said, via Burkhardt. “Just happened to be one of those nights where I was getting swings and misses rather than weak contact. You just kind of take what the game gives you and just try to embrace a little bit more of a swing-and-miss game.”

After a bit of a rocky start to the season, Fried has stabilized and performed well for the Braves, which has been much needed after the injury to Spencer Strider that has him out for the season. Atlanta is banged up, missing Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuna Jr. this season, so the other stars will have to step up. Fried is one of those stars that need to step up to fill the void to keep hopes alive for a deep postseason run.

Braves' blueprint for success in 2024

After winning the World Series in 2021, the Braves were one of the most dominant regular season teams in 2022 and 2023, despite disappointing playoff exits to the Philadelphia Phillies in both years. The roster was mostly the same heading into 2024, but the Phillies being so dominant, combined with injuries to key players like Strider and Ronald Acuna Jr. makes it hard to expect a division title this year.

The blueprint for success in 2024 for the Braves is likely to stay afloat as currently constructed, then make an aggressive push at the trade deadline to fill holes, like they did in 2021. The good news is that the Braves are still firmly in the top wild card spot as things currently stand, and we have seen wild card teams go on deep runs before in recent years.