ATLANTA — Max Fried likes where the Atlanta Braves stand during their current hot streak, especially after how they competed against the New York Mets in the latest round of showdowns between the top two teams in the National League East Division.
“I think that’s a really good team over there,” Fried said of the first-place Mets, who are trying to end Atlanta’s reign after four NL East championships. “They play really consistent baseball night in and night out, and we know as a club that if we have a chance to win the division, we’re going to have to come out and give our best foot forward every night.”
Fried outpitched Jacob deGrom ever so slightly in a matchup of aces, and Michael Harris II bounced a go-ahead double in the seventh inning that sent Atlanta over New York, 3-2 on Thursday night.
Fellow rookie Vaughn Grissom hustled all the way from first base to score on the ground ball Harris sent to shallow center field. In the ninth, Mets star Francisco Lindor was caught in no man’s land on the bases and thrown out.
The Braves (73-47) won three of four in the series and moved within 3 1/2 games of the Mets (76-43). Second-place Atlanta, the reigning World Series champion, has won nine of its past 10 games.
The Mets came to town having won 17 of their previous 20 games, but they were outscored 18-1 while losing the first two games at Truist Park before holding on for a 9-7 victory Wednesday night.
Fried (11-4) lasted seven innings Thursday, giving up two runs and four hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
DeGrom (2-1) allowed five hits and three runs with no walks and nine strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.
Grissom beat out an infield single with two outs in the seventh, finishing deGrom and bringing Seth Lugo in from the bullpen. Harris followed with a grounder up the middle that split a pair of New York infielders. Grissom, running hard the whole way, beat the throw to the plate with a head-first slide.
“I was thinking this is going to be a close play,” Grissom said. “But it was just exciting to be in that position and for Mike to hit that ball and for me to score was a huge moment in the game where we just needed a run.”
Kenley Jansen avoided major trouble to earn his 27th save in 31 chances this season.
Lindor singled to begin the ninth and was trying to steal as Pete Alonso hit a blooper to right-center field. Lindor had already slid head first into second when he saw the ball and, thinking it would be caught, hurriedly retreated to first.
But the ball dropped between three Braves, and Lindor, most of the way back, could only watch as right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. picked it up and tossed to second for an easy forceout.
Jansen struck out Daniel Vogelbach, and pinch-runner Deven Marrero stole second with Jeff McNeil batting. McNeil grounded out to Jansen to end it.
The Mets made it 2-all in the fifth when Mark Canha hit his eighth homer of the season, a two-run drive. Canha, who had doubled twice Wednesday, snapped Fried’s streak of 69 1/3 innings without allowing a homer, the longest stretch in the majors this season. Fried gave up his previous homer June 9 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Fried, who came off the injured list after missing the last nine games with a concussion incurred in the finale of a five-game series hosted by the Mets — who won four of those — allowed his first hit of the game when Canha doubled to begin the third. Canha advanced to third base on rookie Brett Baty’s single with nobody out, but Fried escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect, being off longer than normal, but when you’re going up against a guy like Jake deGrom you bring everything you’ve got,” Fried said. “I felt pretty sharp.”
DeGrom, in his fourth start since injuries forced him to miss nearly 13 months, gave up a two-out single to Austin Riley in the first and a one-out single to Robbie Grossman in the third. Dansby Swanson doubled home Grossman for a 1-0 lead.
Riley, the next batter, came through with another two-out RBI, driving in Swanson with a single. DeGrom retired the next 12 batters he faced before Grissom reached in the seventh.
“I felt like in the first it was pretty good, and then it comes down to two pitches to Dansby, just a bad slider over the middle and then the one to Riley,” deGrom said. “Those are two mistakes I wished I had back, but they capitalized on it and it was frustrating, but it is what it is.”
A two-time Cy Young Award winner, DeGrom threw 95 pitches, his most since delivering 109 in a shutout of the Washington Nationals on April 23, 2021.
Since becoming a full-time starter in 2019, Fried has 49 wins, second in the majors to the New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole’s 52 over the same span. The lefty improved to 6-5 with a 2.84 ERA in 20 appearances (15 starts) against the Mets.
DeGrom began the game leading the majors with a 1.93 ERA since the start of 2018 among players with a minimum of 400 innings pitched. He dropped to 10-8 with a 2.08 ERA in 27 career starts against the Braves.
“Definitely disappointing,” deGrom said. “Wanted to come in here and win all four games. Once they won a couple, the goal was for the split. And we weren’t able to get it.”
The Mets stay on the road for four games against the Philadelphia Phillies, third in the division and 10 back.
Atlanta remains home for a three-game weekend set against the Houston Astros, a rematch of last year’s World Series. The Astros currently have the American League’s best record at 77-43 and are winners in six of their past eight games, including a 21-5 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
In Friday’s opener, the Braves will start Kyle Wright (14-5, 3.14 ERA) and the Astros will go with Lance McCullers Jr. (1-0, 0.00) in a matchup of right-handers.