Max Fried continued to dominate his opposition, as he pitched eight shutout innings and kept the Washington Nationals quiet as the Atlanta Braves scored just enough offense to pull off a 2-0 win.

If you’re looking for baseballs being hit all around the ballpark and over the fence, then buddy, you are at the wrong URL tonight. Instead, we were treated to a good ol’ fashioned pitcher’s duel in Cobb County tonight as Max Fried and Jake Irvin spent most of this night dominating their opposing hitters. With that being said, the Nationals certainly had their chances to at least get something going and that was the case when CJ Abrams started off the game with a leadoff double.

Picked off by Max 🔥#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/aU798p2kOy

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 29, 2024

However, Abrams got a little too aggressive on the basepaths with his teammate Lane Thomas at the plate and took off on a little flare that landed right in Ozzie Albies’ glove. Ozzie then simply tossed the ball to Orlando Arcia at second base for the double play. Washington added on a couple of singles but a pop fly ended the inning and unfortunately for the Nationals, double plays would become a theme on the night.

Meanwhile, Jake Irvin and strikeouts became another theme on the night as the 27-year-old hurler started as he meant to go on. Irvin struck out the side in the first inning and just kept on adding a bunch of whiffs as he stayed on the mound for a good long while this evening. Max Fried tried his best to keep up with him, as he struck out a pair of Nats batters in the second inning as he retired Washington in order in that frame. The second and third innings were quiet for both teams, as Irvin was able to strand Adam Duvall on second base after a one-out double in the third.

The Nationals got another chance when Joey Meneses led off the fourth with a single but nothing came of it after Fried got three outs with two ground balls — the first one knocked Meneses off of the basepaths and the second one as the second double play of the game for Fried and the Braves. Washington got another leadoff single in the fifth inning when Jesse Winker got a knock to reach base. Once again, any chance that Washington had of scoring was wiped out almost immediately as Fried caught Winker leaning big time while straying from first base and then two strikeouts ended the inning in short order.

While Washington didn’t get another leadoff hit in the sixth inning, they still ran into another familiar foe: The double play. CJ Abrams got on with a single but was wiped out along with Lane Thomas on a ground ball to end the inning. Joey Meneses did lead off the seventh with another single but guess what? Max Fried induced a ground ball out of Nick Senzel and the 4-6-3 DP was Washington’s fourth time hitting into a double play on the night. Folks, I’d say that it’s pretty difficult for anybody to win a game when they’re hitting into that many double plays in one night. Max Fried alongside his infielders definitely made life miserable for the Nationals tonight.

As it turned out, the seventh inning ended up being the major turning point in this game as that was when Atlanta’s bats finally came alive. It sure helped that the Nationals decided to pull Jake Irvin from the game after six innings and 90 pitches, so it was safe to assume that the Braves were thrilled to see another guy out there. Marcell Ozuna was particularly happy to see Jacob Barnes as he welcomed Barnes into the game with a leadoff dinger that broke the scoreless deadlock and put the Braves ahead.

Matt Olson followed that up with a single and then Sean Murphy got a one-out knock that moved Olson to third base. Jarred Kelenic took advantage of the scoring chance by hitting a fly ball into Jesse Winker’s glove in the opposite field. Olson scored easily on the fly ball and that made it 2-0 Braves at that point.

Now that he was finally working with some run support, it was up to Max Fried to make it stand and shut the door after Atlanta had finally broken through and scored some runs. Fried did start off the inning with a leadoff walk (his only walk of the game) but it was a good news/bad news situation for Washington in this frame. The good news for the Nats was that they didn’t end up hitting into a double play in this inning! It sure would’ve been a fitting ending to Fried’s night but it wasn’t in the cards. Instead, the bad news for Washington was that Fried ended his night with a strikeout and a ground out to complete eight scoreless innings of work. This was another brilliant night at the office for Max Fried and hopefully he can continue to ride this wave for as long as possible.

The Braves were unable to add onto their lead, so Raisel Iglesias was given the save opportunity in the ninth inning. As you’d expect from Iglesias, he didn’t have too much of an issue as he sat down the Nationals in order with two strikeouts to end the game and give the Braves their 31st win of the season and their ninth shutout win, to boot!

While I’d imagine that we’d all still like to see more offense from the Braves, you’ve got to give credit to Jake Irvin for delivering one of his best performances of the season so far. Fortunately for us, Max Fried was better as he continued to look dominant on the mound. Atlanta will now be going for a guaranteed split and it’ll be a special night at the ballpark tomorrow night as Spencer Schwellenbach will be starting and making his MLB debut. The game starts at 7:20 P.M. E.T. and you won’t want to miss it.