Atlanta Braves starter Max Fried pitches during the first inning of Thursday night’s home game against the Chicago Cubs. Fried took a perfect game into the sixth inning and the Braves won 9-4.ATLANTA – Max Fried credits time spent in the bullpen with helping his mentality as he becomes more confident in his talent and more aggressive with his approach.
Now the Atlanta Braves’ young left-hander doesn’t want to go back to a relief role.
Fried took a perfect game into the sixth inning and Nick Markakis drove in five runs with five hits as Atlanta beat the Chicago Cubs 9-4 Thursday night to complete a three-game series sweep.
Fried, who said he has learned to “just trust my stuff,” mixed his fastball clocked at 97 mph with a curve and slider and threw them all for consistent strikes.
“When a kid figures something out with all that assortment,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, “then you’ve really got something.”
Fried (1-0) made a strong bid to keep a spot in Atlanta’s rotation after Kevin Gausman and Mike Foltynewicz come off the injured list. Gausman is expected to make his debut against Miami on Friday night, and Foltynewicz, an All-Star last summer, could return in about 10 days.
Making only the 10th start of his MLB career and his first this season after two scoreless relief appearances, the 25-year-old Fried recorded 17 straight outs to open the game. Mark Zagunis singled up the middle with two outs in the sixth inning to become Chicago’s first baserunner.
Fried allowed one hit with no walks and five strikeouts in six innings.
The Braves led 9-0 before the Cubs scored four runs in the ninth. Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run home run and Javier Baez followed with another homer off Chad Sobotka.
The Cubs have lost five straight and are 1-5 for the first time since 2012, when they lost 101 games.
“It sucks, but that’s the beauty of this game,” Rizzo said. “We get to come in tomorrow and write our own script.”
Three Chicago relievers gave up six runs in four innings.
“We’ve just got to get our bullpen in order,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
It was a troubling series for the Cubs, who committed six errors in an 8-0 loss Monday night and walked five batters in the eighth inning of a 6-4 loss Wednesday night.
Cubs starter Yu Darvish (0-1) gave up three runs on five hits and four walks, one intentional, in four-plus innings. He set a career high with seven walks in his first start of the season this past Saturday against the Rangers in Texas.
Right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. walked two batters and threw a wild pitch that allowed Inciarte to score from third. Tyler Chatwood allowed the three-run double to Markakis and a run-scoring single to Dansby Swanson.
Braves left-hander A.J. Minter, making his 2019 debut after coming off the injured list, walked two batters before recording the final two outs in the ninth.
Light rain began in the second inning and continued most of the game.
Darvish was removed after giving up a leadoff double to Ender Inciarte and a walk to Josh Donaldson in the fifth.
The three-run double by Markakis was the big hit in Atlanta’s five-run fifth inning. Markakis matched his career high with three doubles and five hits.
“It’s a good feeling, especially when you’re helping the team,” he said.
The Braves placed large get-well cards for former manager Bobby Cox at three locations for fans to sign. One of the four-foot wide cards was placed near Cox’s statue outside SunTrust Park. Cox, a Hall of Famer, had a stroke on Tuesday and remains in an Atlanta-area hospital. No details about Cox’s condition have been released by his family or the team.