Max Fried might have saved the season.
At the very least, he stopped the bleeding on Friday night and elevated the Braves to 1.5 games over the Phillies with just eight games to go.
Fried was brilliant from the start at Petco Park. Facing the team who took him in the first round of the 2012 draft, he tossed nine nearly-perfect frames and never ran into trouble. He needed just 98 pitches to disperse of a talented Padres lineup. He struck out four and walked none. It’s his second Maddux of the season — a complete game in less than 100 pitches — with the other coming in Baltimore last month.