HOUSTON — At this time a year ago, Marcell Ozuna was mired in a dreadful slump that swallowed his April. This season, he’s the most productive and consistent hitter in a stacked Braves lineup that has once again been MLB’s best through the first few weeks of the season.
The Braves have needed every bit of that offense during a 12-5 start. Their hitters have helped offset rough outings from some pitchers they were counting on, most notably Max Fried, who has a 7.71 ERA in four starts after allowing three runs in five innings Wednesday in a 5-4, 10-inning comeback win that completed a series sweep against the Houston Astros.
Ozuna hit his MLB-leading eighth homer and Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his first to stake Fried to a 2-1 lead, but he gave it up in a two-run, four-hit fifth inning. Mauricio Dubón’s sixth-inning homer off Jesse Chavez pushed Houston’s lead to 4-2.
The Braves rallied late, as they have frequently this season, and scored the winning run in the 10th on a two-out single from Orlando Arcia, who had a game-tying sacrifice fly in the two-run eighth.
With runners at second and third and one out, Iglesias induces a 6-4-3 double play from Peña to end it, #Braves win 5-4 in 10 innings and sweep the Astros, their first sweep in state of Texas since one here in 2003.
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 17, 2024
Here are takeaways from a 5-1 trip that included a series win against the woeful Marlins and the Braves’ first sweep in the state of Texas since 2003. The Braves are off Thursday before a nine-game homestand begins with the Texas Rangers at Truist Park on Friday.
Olson, Acuña on sizzling Ozuna
After Yordany Alvarez provided the Astros a 1-0 lead with a first-inning homer off Fried, Ozuna answered with a second-inning homer off J.P. France for his majors-leading 23rd RBI. Like most of Ozuna’s home runs, it was a no-doubter — a 432-foot, 112 mph drive that made Alvarez’s look like a pop fly.
Acuña’s leadoff homer in the fifth inning gave the Braves a 2-1 lead and snapped his string of 79 regular-season at-bats without a homer since Sept. 27, the longest drought of his career. Acuña is the reigning NL MVP, but Ozuna has been the Braves’ biggest run producer in 2024.
Ozuna hit .400 with three homers and 10 RBIs on the six-game trip and is batting .352 with a 1.135 OPS that ranks second in the NL to Mookie Betts’ 1.137.
“You knew it was coming,” Acuña said through a translator about Ozuna, who was seated at his neighboring locker stall watching a replay of his home run on his phone. “The guy’s a worker. Everything he went through last season, putting in the work and the type of success he ended up having, I’m not surprised.”
Ozuna’s homer was the 32nd ball he’s put in play at 95 mph or higher this season, also tops among the Braves. Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Michael Harris II each had 26 such hard-hit balls before Wednesday.
“I mean, his bat looks like a toothpick in his hands, the way he moves it around,” said Olson, the only major leaguer with more home runs or RBIs than Ozuna since May 1. Olson has 49 homers and 126 RBIs during that span to Ozuna’s 45 and 120. “He’s able to kind of attack later, because of how quick he moves the bat through the zone. He gets a little extra time to see the pitch, and definitely does a good job of staying to the big part of the field.”
Kyle Schwarber is tied with Ozuna for third in majors in homers (44) since May 1 and Betts is third in RBIs (114), behind the dynamic duo in the middle of the Braves’ order. Olson has hit fourth and Ozuna fifth in every game this season, the spots they’ve occupied since Ozuna moved from sixth in late August. (Olson moved to the cleanup spot in late June.)
What makes Ozuna’s performance since May 1 more impressive is that he hit .085 with two RBIs and a .397 OPS last April, when many thought he was washed up at age 32. He had career-low OPS of .645 in 2021 and only .687 in 2022.
Since last April ended he’s looked like Ozuna of old, who hit .317 with 37 homers and 124 RBIs for the Marlins in 2017 and led the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBIs over 60 games for Atlanta in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
“It’s been awesome,” Olson said. “To have the start he had last year and then finish with 40 (homers) and 100 (RBIs), and then coming out swinging the way he has since the start of spring this year, has been fun to watch. There’s been multiple times early on this season where I haven’t moved the runner or gotten the run in, and it seems like he’s come through every time.
“It’s a nice feeling when the guy behind you bails you out. But just the whole thing of having a guy like that behind you — I feel comfortable taking walks, working at-bats, knowing that guy can get the run in with the best of them.”
Fried’s been lackluster …
After throwing just 52 strikes in 96 pitches Wednesday and allowing seven hits, three runs and four walks in five innings, Fried has totaled 16 1/3 innings in four starts including one of more than five innings. That was Friday against the punchless Marlins, whom he limited to four hits, one run and one walk in 6 1/3 innings.
“Definitely don’t want to walk four guys in the first three innings, but did enough job to get some groundballs,” said Fried, who stranded two runners in the first inning, and got double-play grounders after walks in the second and third to avoid more trouble after consistently falling behind in counts. “Defense was really great behind me. Then the later it went, it just kind of fell off the rails a little bit, I just wasn’t able to execute on fastballs as much as I wanted. (Catcher Travis d’Arnaud) did a great job just keeping me in it.”
Fried added, “When the guys give you a lead, and you give it up immediately — that’s something that probably bothers me the most, is just not being able to get out of that (fifth) inning limiting the damage more.”
The Astros got two runs in the fifth on four consecutive one-out hits and a Fried wild pitch, taking a 3-2 lead.
It’s been that kind of uncharacteristic early season for Fried, who made three consecutive Opening Day starts before Spencer Strider got that honor this season after leading the majors in wins and strikeouts in 2023. Now, with Strider out after season-ending elbow surgery last week, the Braves could really use a return to form by Fried.
The 30-year-old lefty was 35-14 with a 2.68 ERA in 69 starts during 2020-2022, and Fried had fifth-place and runner-up finishes in Cy Young Award voting in that span. He was 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA in 2023, limited to 14 starts by hamstring and forearm injuries.
In three starts other than Miami, he’s allowed 19 hits, 13 earned runs and eight walks with eight strikeouts in 10 innings.
“I feel like I’m pretty close,” Fried said. “Even not being as sharp today, in the last inning I gave up hits (on pitches) out of the zone; that’s a good hitting team over there and they were able to get some hits. Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your hat to good players, and hopefully stuff like that (eventually) bounces my way.
“If you were to ask me if I’d rather be clicking now or at the end of the year, I’d say at the end of the year. So to be able to face all the things that I might not be doing well right now — correct them now to be able to keep progressing throughout the year.”
… while López has excelled
Meanwhile, No. 5 starter Reynaldo López has surpassed all reasonable expectations. He has a 0.50 ERA in three starts — second-best among qualified MLB pitchers — after spending the past three years in a relief role in the American League.
Signing him to a three-year, $30 million free-agent contract and converting López back to starting now looks like a doubly astute move by general manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos. Lopez, 30, has produced not just all quality starts — six innings or more, three earned runs or fewer — but all exceptional ones.
He’s worked six innings in each of his three starts and allowed four hits or fewer, with 18 total strikeouts and six walks in 18 innings. His only run allowed was in his Braves debut in cold, wet conditions at Chicago against his former White Sox team.
The Braves have wisely spread out his starts, taking advantage of days off in the schedule and weather postponements to give López six days of rest between each, or two more days than conventional rest between starts in a five-man rotation.
In the past couple of seasons, the Braves have moved towards five days’ rest for their starters more frequently than four days, by not skipping starters when there are off days in the schedule and also bringing up pitchers from the minors for occasional spot starts.
And this season, with a rotation that includes former reliever López, 40-year-old Charlie Morton, plus veteran newcomer Chris Sale, who was limited by a string of injuries in recent seasons, the Braves have provided even more rest for starters.
They hope to continue that pattern with López as a means of monitoring his innings and trying to ensure he’s still strong late in the season. The last time he pitched as many as 70 innings was 2019, his most recent year as a starter, when he worked 184 innings in 33 starts for the White Sox and went 10-15 with a 5.38 ERA.
“Obviously transitioning from the bullpen into a starter role, the extra rest has been helpful,” López said through a translator. “And as much as the seven days have helped, I want to thank the trainers and the medical staff and everyone who’s helped me with the recovery process. I want to make sure that they get the proper recognition.”
As for staying strong for October if he stays in a starting role, Lopez said he planned just to “Keep doing what I’m doing … Whether it’s starter, closer, reliever — the only thing that matters to me is winning. The goal is to win the World Series.”
(Photo of Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuña Jr.: Thomas Shea / USA Today)
