Braves Win Series But Can't Sweep San Francisco Thanks to Logan Webb Gem

The Atlanta Braves couldn't finish off the sweep, dropping the series finale 6-0 against the San Francisco Giants in Oracle Park on Thurday afternoon.

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

Max Fried stumbled early and took the bad luck loss

In just his second start off since coming off the injured list, Fried started off a bit shaky. The Giants scored two runs off of five hits in the first two innings, with most of the damage coming on second inning singles. Struggling to get his locations dialed in early, Fried allowed two of his three consecutive singles to open the second inning on poorly placed pitches, one coming off of a sinker at the top of the zone and the other on a sinker that was center-cut, out over the heart of the plate.

But for all the struggles, Fried rebounded. After the first two innings and the 2-0 Giants lead, the lefty retired eleven of the next twelve batters. For having thrown 72 pitches through three innings, just making it to the sixth inning was a success for Fried, who left at 103 pitches after issuing a one-out walk to Mike Yastrzemski.

The final line for Max was 5.1 innings with three runs allowed on five hits, walking three and striking out five. The third and final run scored off of Jesse Chavez, who relieved Fried and gave up homers to Casey Schmitt (a two-run shot) and a solo shot to call-up Grant McCray, who was making just his second career start and picked up his first two MLB hits today.

Logan Webb did Logan Webb things

Sweeping an opponent in a three game series is hard. Doing it in a four game series is even tougher.

But when you're facing Logan Webb in that final game? Might as well write that one off.

Webb showed why he was last year's runner-up for Cy Young in the National League, going 7.2 innings with only four hits and one walk opposite seven strikeouts. One of the hits and the walk came in the final two batters he faced in the 8th inning, knocking him out of the game at 104 pitches (71 strikes).

Webb's length was sorely needed for a Giants bullpen that had two extra-innings games in this series and then were asked to cover more than eight innings after last night's starter, Robbie Ray, was knocked out in the first inning of Atlanta's 13-2 blowout victory . (The Giants sent a position player to the mound for the ninth inning, so the bullpen only covered 7.1 innings instead of 8.1.)

A murderer's row of opposing starters

Atlanta faced three accomplished Giants starters in Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, and Logan Webb as well as their former top prospect, lefty Kyle Harrison, in this series.

Snell was last season's Cy Young winner in the National League. Webb was the runner-up for the award, while Robbie Ray won the American League award in 2021 while with the Toronto Blue Jays. Harrison was not only the organization's top overall prospect entering the 2024 season, he was on the short list for top left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball.

But despite the prestige staring back from the opposing pitcher's mound, the Braves went 3-1 in the series (although two of those three wins came in extra innings). The entire series had an postseason feel to it, with the Chris Sale vs Blake Snell matchup in game one being considered by many as one of the best baseball games of the year.

Depsite the struggles for Atlanta this season, the ability to get clutch wins when facing top starters at their best (Snell, Harrison) and to take advantage of a rare off day by a former Cy Young winner (Ray) has to instill some confidence about Atlanta's odds of not only continung to hold their Wild Card spot, but actually advancing past their opening round matchup for the first time since 2021.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

The Braves are loading up for the flight from San Francisco International Airport to Santa Ana Airport for this weekend's matchup against the Los Angeles Angels.

(They wouldn't fly into LAX, as it's still a 90 minute bus ride across town to the ballpark. Santa Ana's like eight and a half miles away).

This weekend's rotation will feature Spencer Schwellenbach on Friday night (9:38 PM ET), Chris Sale on Saturday (9:38 PM ET), and Charlie Morton on Sunday afternoon (4:07 PM ET).