September 28 – Max Fried allowed three hits in 8 2/3 scoreless innings and Sean Murphy hit a two-run homer to lead the host Atlanta Braves (The Atlanta Braves beat the Kansas City Royals 3–0 on Friday.
Immediately following the loss, the Minnesota Twins lost to the Baltimore Orioles 7–2, sealing the Royals’ playoff spot.
Kansas City (85-75) currently holds the American League’s third and final wild card, one game behind Detroit (86-74) with two games remaining. The Royals will beat the Tigers in the tiebreaker.
The Braves (87-71) have won four in a row and are tied with the Mets (87-71) and Diamondbacks (88-72) for the second and third NL wild cards. New York lost 8-4 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday and Arizona lost 5-3 to the San Diego Padres. New York will play a makeup two-game set at Atlanta on Monday.
Fried (11-10) highlighted his 98-pitch performance by striking out the first 10 batters and nine overall.
Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna scored on a throwing error in the eighth inning.
Michael Messi grabbed a double for the Royals, ending their three-match winning streak.
Fried got off to a fast start, but Bobby Witt Jr. moved quickly with the ball and hit an infield single with one out in the fourth inning. The left-hander induced Massie to hit a fielder’s choice and then threw him out at first base to end the inning.
Massie got a one-out double in the seventh, but Fried struck out the next two batters on three pitches each. Fried struck out in the eighth and struck out in the ninth, but was struck out after a walk by Witt and a two-out double by Massie.
Ácer Iglesias hit Salvador Pérez’s flyout on his only pitch to end the game and earn his 33rd save.
Atlanta scored first in the fourth inning.
Jorge Soler lined a single to left field. Murphy then walked two batters and hit Brady Singer (9-13) over the wall to left field to tie the game 0-2. Murphy’s home run was his 10th of the season.
Ozuna scored again after stealing third base in the eighth inning, and catcher Pérez came back to score after fouling the throw to third base in left field.
Singer is 0-5 in his last seven starts, allowing two runs on four hits in six innings. He walked three times and struck out five.
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