It’s Fried Day at Fenway as the Atlanta Braves take on the Red Sox

After a series that saw the Atlanta Braves pick up a series victory over the Oakland Athletics to complete their homestand, the Braves are back on the road to face their traditional interleague rival in the form of the Red Sox of Boston.

The Braves are seeing Kutter Crawford for the second time in as many months and they may have caught Crawford at the end of a great run to start the season. In that May 7 start, the Braves only managed to push two runs at the plate against Crawford in six innings, but that ended up being enough for Atlanta after Reynaldo López paced him for 5.1 innings in the pitcher’s duel. Since that beginning, Crawford has fallen on hard times. He’s made four starts since and allowed at least four runs in three of those starts — including his last two starts where he allowed six runs in 4.1 innings against the Brewers, then was tagged for five runs in six innings against the Orioles. during his very next (and most recent) departure.

Kutter Crawford has definitely slowed down on the mound after his hot start to the season saw him sit at and near the top of the starting pitcher fWAR leaderboard. He’s still in the top 20 among starters, but it’s clear that a lot of that work was done in the first month of the season and early May. His performance mirrors what’s happening with the Red Sox as a whole, as Boston has gone from 19-16 before the aforementioned series with the Braves in Cobb County to 30-30 now that the two teams are renewing hostilities in Boston. This evening. Overall, this is about where you’d expect this particular Red Sox team to be, but they’ve definitely fallen into the pack of mediocre teams since we last saw them.

Meanwhile, the Braves are somewhat comfortably above .500 themselves, but they clearly haven’t hit the type of equipment we’re used to seeing from them at any given point in the season. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Braves clearly didn’t hit the ball like we all expected. As of the immediate aftermath of that aforementioned two-game series between the Red Sox and Braves, the Braves have a team slash line of .239/.303/.392 with a .153 isolated power number and a team wRC+ by just 97. For comparison, the Red Sox hit .230/.300/.405 with an ISO of .165 and a team wRC+ of 94. Boston actually outscored the Braves quite a bit during this period, which is not just that. I expected to write at any point during this season, but baseball is full of stuff. amusing And wonderful surprises, right?

Regardless, Atlanta’s pitching staff has carried a lot of the load for the Braves this season and one guy who has been showing some serious action lately has been Max Fried. Tonight’s starter for Atlanta has been on a roll lately. He’s gone at least seven innings in four of his last five starts, including a complete game at Wrigley Field against the Cubs on May 22, then his most recent outing saw him pitch eight shutout innings against the Nationals.

Although he had a rough outing against the Padres where he allowed three runs and couldn’t get through five innings, it’s evident that Fried has returned to the form we’ve come to love throughout his tenure with the Braves. When you consider what I’ve been mentioning about Boston’s offense lately, I’m going to say it wouldn’t be strange to suggest that tonight could be another good night for Max Fried.

After reclaiming a homestand where they honestly should have fared much better than they did, the Braves are clearly looking to embark on this road trip that won’t see them return to Cobb County until the June 14. They had success against the Reds. The Sox at Truist Park last month and will surely hope to repeat that success with Max Fried on the mound tonight. The Red Sox have also slowed down a bit since the last time these two teams faced each other, but they’re still a team that needs to be taken seriously – as every game really is. Games at Fenway Park are always interesting and tonight’s contest should be no different.

Game information

Game date/time: Tuesday, June 4, 7:10 p.m. ET

Location: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

TV: Bally Sports South

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan