“Ah, that’s so much fun,” d’Arnaud said of catching a performance like that. “Obviously when he was through six innings and he was still on a 50-whatever pitch count, the Maddux came in my head, at least.”

“You don’t see it too often,” Duvall said.

Fried looked focused. He attacked. The Marlins were overmatched.

As he continued cruising, Fried tried to stay at it.

“Try not to think about it too much,” he said of his mindset. “Stay in the moment as much as you possibly can. Having really good conversation with Travis, working really well with him. And honestly, just trying to get back to the basics of who I am, and that’s getting weak contact, getting ground balls and being on the attack.”

Of his 13 Maddux outings, Maddux himself logged 11 of them with Atlanta. Tom Glavine threw five such games for the Braves.

They are the only two pitchers to have more Maddux outings than Fried.

“That’s kind of my thing,” Fried said of throwing a third Maddux.

— 2. For Fried, it had been almost three full years since he had a start like this. He was aware that it hadn’t happened since 2021.

Aug. 20, 2021, at Baltimore: Nine innings, zero runs, four hits, four strikeouts, 90 pitches (66 strikes).

...continued

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