Max Fried joins unique group following complete game shutout

The solution to fixing Max Fried’s early season struggles turns out to be a simple one. Just have him face the Marlins every time he toes the rubber. In Fried’s first start against the Fish, he went into the seventh inning and only allowed one run on four hits. Against everyone else, he’s yet to make it past the fifth inning and surrender fewer than three earned runs. Much of that is a testament to the anemic offense down in Miami, but it doesn’t matter if you’re facing a 15U travel ball squad, what Fried accomplished last night was a rarity that doesn’t come around often in today’s game.

The 30-year-old southpaw completed the third “Maddux” of his career, tossing nine innings of scoreless baseball in under 100 pitches. He only allowed three hits, as the game lasted less than two hours. It was one of the most impressive performances you’ll ever see, and it put Fried in a unique category of pitchers.

Per Baseball Reference, Max Fried is just the 41st pitcher in MLB history to record 3+ shutouts on fewer than 100 pitches, with Greg Maddux himself leading the way, who has 15, eight more than any other pitcher.