ATLANTA – Max Fried hopes a series win against the Los Angeles Dodgers reminds the Atlanta Braves they can still be a playoff team. Back-to-back wins against Clayton Kershaw and Trevor Bauer may help make that point.
Fried outpitched Bauer on Sunday afternoon as Atlanta beat Los Angeles 4-2 on Sunday to take two of three in the first meeting of the teams since the Dodgers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win last year’s National League Championship Series.
On Saturday night, the Braves beat the reigning World Series champions 6-4 with three-time Cy Young Award winner Kershaw starting for the Dodgers. Atlanta lost 9-5 in Friday’s opener, when the visitors scored eight runs in the fifth inning.
“I just felt like we played really good baseball, complete offense, defense, pitching,” Fried said. “We were able to put it all together. This is obviously the type of baseball we feel we can play, and we can build off that.”
Albert Pujols hit his 671st career home run and had two hits and two RBIs for the Dodgers (34-25). He homered leading off the ninth inning against closer Will Smith, who regrouped to get his 11th save in 11 chances this season.