ATLANTA – Max Fried picked up where Charlie Morton left off a night earlier on the mound for the Atlanta Braves.
Fried allowed two hits in seven innings, Ozzie Albies and William Contreras homered off Carlos Martínez in a four-run second inning, and Atlanta beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-1 on Friday night.
“It’s exactly what you want to do,” Fried said. “Charlie definitely set the tone last night with attacking guys and keeping a good pace, and it felt like I got a little bit off it in the first. I wanted to get back on the attack and throw strikes, and that was kind of the game plan.”
Contreras’ seventh homer of the season, a solo shot to left field, made it 2-1, and Ronald Acuña Jr. kept the inning alive by walking, stealing second base and scoring on Freddie Freeman’s single. Albies, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs, followed with his 10th homer, a two-run shot to right that made it 5-1.
The Braves are the three-time reigning champions in the National League East, and they are 5 1/2 games back in the division, having won two straight after losing six of seven. St. Louis, which began the night four games back in the NL Central, has dropped five straight and eight of nine on the road.