Win or lose, Max Fried did Brian Snitker and the Braves a massive favor

It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t great, Max Fried was able to help the Atlanta Braves out in a big way with his outing in Game 2 of the World Series.

After Charlie Morton went down with a devastating injury in Game 1 of the 2021 World Series, the Atlanta Braves needed a solid outing from their starting pitcher. Despite the fact that the Houston Astros were able to put up some runs on Max Fried, he was able to do a pretty big favor for Brian Snitker.

Fried was far from perfect in his start during Game 2, but he was good enough. It didn’t matter that Houston was able to jump out and take a solid 5-2 lead on him. What mattered the most was that Atlanta was able to get a long enough outing that saved the Braves’ bullpen.

Fried was able to keep things from getting out of control and made it through 5.0 innings before getting pulled. Had things spiraled on him and Snitker needed to pull him sooner, Atlanta would be facing a difficult situation down the stretch of this series.

There are a lot of questions about pitching for both Atlanta and the Astros, but Houston would have had a pretty good advantage if Atlanta started burning through arms to get out of Game 2.

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried helped Brian Snitker in a significant way

If, before the World Series began, Atlanta fans were polled about the opportunity to split the first two games of this series, they likely would have jumped at that. For Atlanta’s sake, at worst, that’s what’s going to happen as things unfold in Houston.

A best-case scenario for Atlanta fans would include an improbable, late comeback against the Astros. Though Houston controlled the majority of the Game 2 action, it won’t be the end of the world for the Braves to lose here.

It would’ve been a pretty big issue for Atlanta to lose this game and have its bullpen totally depleted. Fried kept that from happening.