Max Fried scattered three hits over 8 2/3 scoreless innings and Sean Murphy belted a two-run homer to lift the host Atlanta Braves to a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday.
Shortly after losing, the Royals clinched a playoff berth when the Minnesota Twins fell 7-2 to the Baltimore Orioles.
Kansas City (85-75) currently holds the third and final American League wild card, one game behind Detroit (86-74) with two games to play. The Royals would win a tiebreaker over the Tigers.
The Braves (87-71) have won four in a row to move into a tie for the second and third NL wild cards with the Mets (87-71) and the Diamondbacks (88-72). New York lost 8-4 to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday, and Arizona fell 5-3 to the San Diego Padres. New York will play a makeup doubleheader at Atlanta on Monday.
Fried (11-10) retired the first 10 batters he faced and struck out nine batters overall to highlight his 98-pitch performance.
Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna scored on a throwing error in the eighth inning.
Michael Massey had two doubles for the Royals, who saw their three-game winning streak end.
Fried got off to a fast start before Bobby Witt Jr. reached on an infield single with one out in the fourth inning. The left-hander induced Massey to hit into a fielder’s choice before picking him off first base to end the inning.
Massey hit a one-out double in the seventh but Fried retired the next two batters on three pitches. Fried struck out two during the eighth inning and one more in the ninth before exiting after Witt walked and Massey doubled with two outs.
Raisel Iglesias induced a game-ending flyout from Salvador Perez on his only pitch to notch his 33rd save.
Atlanta opened the scoring in the fourth inning.
Jorge Soler had a one-out single to left field. Murphy stepped up two batters later and deposited an 0-2 sweeper from Brady Singer (9-13) over the wall in left field. Murphy’s homer was his 10th of the season.
Ozuna tacked on another run in the eighth inning after stealing third base and coming around to score after catcher Perez’s throw toward third sailed into left field.
Singer fell to 0-5 in his past seven outings after permitting two runs on four hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out five.
–Field Level Media
