Braves left-hander Max Fried will be activated from the injured list to start Monday night at San Diego.

Atlanta’s Opening Day starter, Fried left that game in the fourth inning with a strained hamstring. He was injured while covering first base in the 7-2 win over the Washington Nationals.

Braves manager Brian Snitker said Sunday that the Braves have “no restrictions” on Fried for Monday’s game against the Padres, who drafted the lefty in the 2012 draft.

Fried was second in the National League Cy Young award voting in 2022. He was 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA and 1.014 WHIP in 30 starts. Fried was also 14-7 in 2021.

The Padres are 8-9 this season and batting .239 with eight home runs against left-handed pitching.

–Field Level Media

Third baseman Brett Baty is expected to make his highly anticipated season debut on Monday when the visiting New York Mets begin a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 23-year-old Baty was reportedly recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday after batting .400 with five homers and 15 RBIs in nine games. The team’s No. 2 prospect according to MLB Pipeline is set to receive the bulk of the playing time at third base in place of struggling Eduardo Escobar.

Escobar is 6-for-48 with one homer in 14 games for the Mets, who have won four straight. Escobar expressed support for the team’s newest arrival before Sunday’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the Oakland Athletics.

“I’m happy for Baty — he deserves it,” Escobar said through an interpreter. “He really listens a lot to all the advice we give him here and I am hoping that when he comes up he’s able to contribute and help the team win games.”

New York had hit a total of 15 homers through 15 games before going deep three times in Sunday’s victory.

The team is hoping Baty’s arrival provides another consistent source of power in the lineup next to first baseman Pete Alonso, who hit his major-league-best eighth homer in Sunday’s win. Alonso is now tied with Dave Kingman for the fifth-most homers in franchise history with 154.

The Mets will send left-hander David Peterson (0-2, 4.91 ERA) to the mound in the series opener. He gave up two runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings in New York’s 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres last Tuesday. Peterson did not factor into the decision.

“I thought (Peterson) was key to us being in that game,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “He really pitched well, attacked, good to see him get after it (Tuesday) the way he can.”

Peterson, 27, will be making his second career start against the Dodgers. He allowed four runs (one earned) on two hits with four walks and six strikeouts through 3 2/3 innings against Los Angeles on June 4, 2022.

Los Angeles will counter with right-hander Dustin May (1-1, 1.47), who allowed two runs on two hits and four walks over 5 1/3 innings in a 5-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants last Tuesday.

“I never really found myself,” May said. “They were just swinging at balls that were in the zone. Just got to throw more strikes.”

May, 25, began the season by allowing only one run in his first two outings across 13 innings. He is making his first career start against the Mets after throwing one inning of relief against them back on Sept. 15, 2019.

The Dodgers lost two of three to the Chicago Cubs over the weekend and will be without catcher Will Smith for at least this series after he was placed on the seven-day injured list due to concussion-like symptoms prior to Sunday’s game. The move was made retroactive to last Thursday.

Veteran catcher Austin Wynns was signed to replace Smith on the roster. The Dodgers will have a definite hole in the lineup minus Smith, who is batting .333 with three home runs and 12 RBIs in 11 games.

“To not have Will in the lineup, it’s a big blow,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that if you look at a lot of our guys — again, this is 15 games — it’s been very inconsistent, and Will is a consistent performer. So yeah, we need all of our guys to show some consistency, that’d be great.”

–Field Level Media

After stumbling in his first two starts of the season, Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes looked more like the 2021 National League Cy Young Award winner his last time out.

Burnes allowed just three hits in eight scoreless innings of a 7-1 victory last Tuesday at Arizona, with no walks and eight strikeouts.

He’ll look to continue that trend when he takes the mound for the Brewers on Monday night against the host Seattle Mariners in the opener of a three-game interleague series.

“That’s as good a start as Corbin has had in the big leagues,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said of Tuesday’s outing. “I thought he was just awesome, just from really the first sequence of the game, the first inning of the game, he was locked in. He carried it through eight strong innings. … What else do you expect from Corbin?”

Burnes (1-1, 5.19 ERA) said he tried not to worry after allowing 10 runs on 11 hits over 9 1/3 combined innings in his first two starts.

“It’s about not hitting the panic button,” Burnes said. “It’s very easy to start to panic, start looking at things and dig into something that’s not there. So for me, I took a brief look at the mechanics, took a brief look at the movement and everything was there.

“So it’s just getting up there, competing and being aggressive.”

Monday will be the first time Burnes has faced Seattle in his career.

Mariners right-hander Chris Flexen (0-2, 8.74) is scheduled to make his third straight start for the injured Robbie Ray.

After pitching five solid innings in his first start against the Los Angeles Angels, Flexen was hammered last Tuesday against the host Chicago Cubs.

Despite being staked to a 7-0 lead, Flexen couldn’t make it out of the third. He gave up eight runs on 10 hits in 2 1/3 innings in a 14-9 defeat.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Flexen, who is 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in two career relief appearances against Milwaukee. “The guys jump on a lead like that, and to not be able to hold it in that short amount of time is pretty embarrassing. I’m very frustrated, very disappointed.”

Both Milwaukee and Seattle are coming off 1-0 victories Sunday. The Brewers won in San Diego and the Mariners defeated visiting Colorado.

For Seattle, it was its fourth consecutive victory to get back to .500 (8-8).

Seattle’s Jarred Kelenic extended his hitting streak to 10 games by driving in the lone run with a single in the sixth inning and made a diving catch in right field to end the eighth and help preserve the shutout. Luis Castillo retired the first 18 batters he faced and wound up allowing two hits in seven innings.

“Pitching and good defense,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “There’s no substitute for it.”

Milwaukee’s Garrett Mitchell reached on a bunt with one out in the second inning, took second on a disengagement violation, stole third and scored on Brian Anderson’s sacrifice fly.

“That is a run scored with your legs,” Counsell said.

Wade Miley allowed four hits over seven innings and Devin Williams got out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to earn his second save.

–Field Level Media

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been somewhat of a surprise early in the season, and they have been able to compile a winning record despite dealing with adversity.

In the past week, Pittsburgh has put three players on the injured list, including rising star Oneil Cruz, who broke his ankle on April 9 and will miss four months. On Saturday, first baseman Ji Man Choi was placed on the IL with a left Achilles injury and reliever Rob Zastryzny joined them on Sunday with left elbow discomfort.

Despite that, the Pirates nearly took three of four in St. Louis but settled for a split after the Cardinals took the final game, 5-4, in 10 innings.

Now Pittsburgh heads to Denver for a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies that starts Monday night.

Rich Hill (0-2, 7.20 ERA) will take the mound against Colorado’s Kyle Freeland (2-0, 0.96).

Hill is 1-4 with a 5.68 ERA in seven career starts against Colorado, with his only win coming at Coors Field on Sept. 9, 2018, when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was his last start against the Rockies.

Pittsburgh has been struggling to score runs without Cruz in the lineup. With him in the lineup, the Pirates averaged 4.7 runs a game, but have posted an average of just 3.4 since he’s been out.

The challenge is replacing Cruz’s bat atop the order. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Ji Hwan Bae have platooned at leadoff for the past week.

“Cruz was awesome there, but I think Bae can do it,” Hayes said. “He can put the ball in play a lot. He can run. I think he’s the perfect guy.”

Colorado is trying to get back on track after dropping five straight, the last three coming in Seattle over the weekend. The Rockies have gone 3-11 since winning their first two games of the season and were no-hit for six innings before losing 1-0 Sunday.

They haven’t had trouble scoring runs, but the pitching has been suspect after Freeland. The Denver native has looked like he did in 2018 when he finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting. He started this season by not allowing a run in his first 13 innings and left his last start with a lead before St. Louis rallied to win.

Freeland is making his eighth career start against the Pirates and is 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA in his previous outings against them.

Freeland has learned from his struggles the past few seasons as he tries to recapture the form that saw him go 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA in 2018.

“You can never get complacent with your stuff and how you’re pitching,” Freeland said. “If you are complacent, then the game will humble you really quickly. I believe that’s one of the things that happened to me in 2019.

“I kind of thought that I had it figured out, which clearly I didn’t. Now I know that even the best in the game are going to have struggles, they are going to have ruts.”

–Field Level Media

The Chicago Cubs will be riding the momentum of a narrow victory over a National League heavyweight while the Oakland Athletics will have to shake off getting knocked out by another when the clubs open a three-game interleague series Monday night in Northern California.

Cody Bellinger homered in his homecoming and the Cubs got the better of a second consecutive tense finish to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 on Sunday to take two of three in the road series.

The Athletics, meanwhile, were swept by the visiting New York Mets over the weekend.

Former A’s catcher Yan Gomes contributed two homers to the Cubs’ 8-2 win in the opener Friday in Los Angeles, and Patrick Wisdom went deep three times in three days to send the Cubs north with their third straight series win.

The two wins in three games came as the club’s star outfielder, Seiya Suzuki, joined the lineup after missing the first 11 games with a strained oblique. He went just 3-for-14 in the series, but did homer in his season debut Friday.

Winning the series allowed Suzuki to celebrate his primary goal: Stay out of the way.

“I just want to make sure that I don’t want to bring any bad vibes in here,” he insisted. “I want to make sure the team keeps on going and make sure we win a lot of games.”

The Cubs will kick off the three-game set in Oakland with right-hander Hayden Wesnecki (0-0, 7.50) seeking his first win of the season.

The 25-year-old has brought out the best in the Chicago offense in his first two starts, although he didn’t pitch well enough to stick around to earn either win. He allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings in a 12-5 win at Cincinnati in his first start, then seven runs (just two earned) in 1 2/3 innings in a 14-9 home win over the Seattle Mariners last Tuesday.

He has never faced the A’s in his two-year, eight-game career.

The Cubs are visiting Oakland for the first time since a three-game sweep in 2016 and just the third time in their history. The A’s took two of three in the inaugural Oakland series in 2013.

Chicago took two of three at home in 2019 in the clubs’ most recent head-to-head.

Likewise, A’s left-hander Kyle Muller (0-0, 5.52) will be seeing an unfamiliar opponent when he takes the mound. He will be starting for the fourth time this season, having allowed one run to the Los Angeles Angels, two to the Cleveland Guardians and six to the Baltimore Orioles in a negative-trending pattern.

Oakland could use Muller’s best — and most importantly, longest — outing of the season, as their bullpen put in a mentally and physically exhausting effort in their three-game home sweep against the Mets.

A’s relievers had to cover 5 1/3 innings in Friday’s 17-6 drubbing, then a total of seven innings of nerve-wracking work in 3-2 and 4-3 losses the last two days. Sunday’s defeat went 10 innings.

“Our bullpen guys, you look at their workload. We’re leaning on these guys right now,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay noted after watching his relief crew serve up a game-tying home run to Pete Alonso in the ninth inning and a go-ahead wild pitch in the 10th in Sunday’s loss.

“It’s not an excuse,” he continued. “But the reality is we’ve had to use them a lot in the first 14 games. I think it’s impacted some of their abilities, some of their success.”

The A’s will take a four-game losing streak into the series.

–Field Level Media

When the San Diego Padres departed Atlanta on Easter Sunday, they were riding a high, having taken three of four games in the Braves’ first home series of the season.

Since then, however, the Padres are 2-5 and have scored three runs or fewer in each of the losses — twice getting shut out. The Braves, meanwhile, have gone 6-0 and swept the Royals before jumping the jet for San Diego.

There is a bit of an asterisk. The Padres played the Mets and Brewers while the Braves were taming the Reds and Royals with a day off in between.

Atlanta has more momentum as Opening Day starter Max Fried (0-0, 2.70) is back from the injured list for Monday’s series opener. Fried hasn’t pitched since leaving the first game of the season with a hamstring strain in the fourth inning.

“Disappointing,” was the first word out of Bob Melvin’s mouth Sunday afternoon after the manager’s Padres were shut out by the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 to lose for a third time in four games at home.

Things are not going the way the Padres or their fans expected in the early part of the season.

Juan Soto is hitting .172. Manny Machado has one homer and seven RBIs after 17 games. Fernando Tatis Jr. doesn’t return from his PED suspension until Thursday. And Joe Musgrove is still on the injured list.

The Padres will open the series Monday with left-hander Ryan Weathers (1-0, 2.70 ERA), who normally would be No. 7 on the rotation depth chart. But in addition to their other problems, the Padres are at game No. 12 in a run of 18 straight games without a scheduled day off.

The Braves have regained their momentum, and Fried takes the mound against a team batting just .239 against lefties this season.

“After a solid start, we didn’t play as well as we needed to when we came home to play the Padres,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, whose ballclub is 11-1 against everyone else on their schedule thus far.

Snitker said Fried, who was second in the NL Cy Young Award voting last season with a 14-7 record, is under no physical restrictions on Monday. Fried is 2-0 with 17 strikeouts in 22 innings against the team that drafted him in 2012 — San Diego — in his career.

As for the Padres, they have played before eight home sellouts and are averaging 42,034 fans for their first 10 home games. And their record at home: 4-6.

The Padres are 2-0 in Weathers’ first two starts. His win came in New York against the Mets in his most recent start on April 11. He held the Mets to one run on three hits and two walks over five innings. Over his first two outings, the former first-round pick has given up three runs on eight hits and five strikeouts in 10 innings.

Weathers is making something of a comeback at the age of 23. After making 30 major league appearances (18 starts) as a 21-year-old in 2021, Weathers made one spot start in all of 2022.

“He came to spring training this year with a different attitude,” said Melvin. “Nothing was promised him. We talk about his demeanor and coming to spring training and earning his keep and fighting for everything. I think it showed up in his last start against the Mets.

“He’s got a good fastball. He’s been working on his off-speed stuff which is important to him. I’d like to see maybe a little more consistency in the zone.”

–Field Level Media