Max Fried was selected seventh overall by the San Diego Padres in the 2012 draft and was traded to Atlanta while he was a minor league prospect.
Now, the Braves left-hander has the opportunity to prevent the Padres from clinching the National League wild-card series on Wednesday evening when Atlanta plays at San Diego in Game 2.
The fourth-seeded Padres won the opener 4-0 behind seven shutout innings from Michael King and a two-run homer by Fernando Tatis Jr.
Fried (11-10, 3.25 ERA) now looks to post his own solid pitching performance. And seeing the Padres as the opponent means nothing to him since the trade is ancient history in his mind.
“I mean, at this point, it kind of feels like a different lifetime,” Fried said Tuesday. “It’s been so much time. I’ve been with the Braves for 10 years. At the end of the day, everyone — it’s a business. You move team to team. But it’s just another postseason game. Gotta go out there and leave it all out there and try to win.”
Fried was part of the package acquired by Atlanta when outfielder Justin Upton was shipped to San Diego in December 2014. Upton spent one season with the Padres before departing as a free agent.
Fried, now 30, first pitched in the majors in 2017 and stuck for good in 2019 when he won a career-best 17 games. The two-time NL All-Star is 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA in 168 regular-season appearances (151 starts).
He has been a dependable pitcher for the fifth-seeded Braves despite going 2-4 with a 4.57 ERA in 19 career postseason appearances (11 starts).
Regardless, Braves manager Brian Snitker is glad he can call on Fried for Game 2.
“We don’t have to win two in a row, we’ve just got to win (Wednesday),” Snitker said. “We’re sitting pretty good with Max Fried on the mound for us.”
Atlanta batters struck out 15 times while being blanked in the opener as San Diego pitchers controlled the game.
Tatis set the tone with his mammoth homer into the second deck in left in the bottom of the first inning.
“It was pretty special,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. “Laser to left. And ‘Tati’ didn’t waste any time. Got a pitch you can hit and put a big-boy swing on it. That was huge to get us up.”
Padres catcher Kyle Higashioka also homered and drove in another run with a sacrifice fly.
San Diego right-hander Joe Musgrove will look to approach the Game 1 effort from King when he takes the mound on Wednesday.
Musgrove (6-5, 3.88 ERA) didn’t face Atlanta this season. He is 3-1 with a 4.29 ERA in eight career starts against the Braves.
Musgrove is 2-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 10 career postseason appearances (three starts). All seven relief appearances were for the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros, and the three starts were in 2022 for the Padres.
He said the postseason experiences have helped him learn to relax.
“It’s another game and obviously the stakes are a lot higher. There’s a lot more at stake,” Musgrove said. “But it’s the same game we’ve played all year long. It’s a team we’ve seen before. It’s just a matter of managing your emotions and staying in the moment and not letting the fears and doubt and worry sink in.”
Marcell Ozuna (6-for-17) and Matt Olson (3-for-9) have enjoyed success against Musgrove. Ozzie Albies is 2-for-13.
Fried lost to the Padres for the first time in his career on May 17 when he gave up three runs and nine hits over 4 1/3 innings. He is 3-1 with a 2.30 ERA in five career outings against San Diego.
Manny Machado is just 1-for-16 with a homer against Fried (including the postseason). Luis Arraez is 4-for-8, and Jurickson Profar is 3-for-8.
