Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley put his signature on a great month of baseball as he hit the game-winning double, which saw Atlanta beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0, sweeping the series Sunday afternoon at Truist Park.
With two doubles in the afternoon, Riley broke Hank Aaron’s record for extra base hits. Aaron set the record with 25 extra base hits, a record that stood since July 1961. Moreover, Riley batted an incredible .423 with an on-base percentage of .459 and an incredible slugging percentage of .885. Riley also hit eleven home runs and tallied 25 RBIs during July. By all indications, Riley should be the National League Player of the Month when such awards are announced.
When asked about Riley’s exploits, Braves Manager Brian Snitker was at a loss for words.
“Yea, a pretty stellar man you just passed,” exclaimed Snitker. “It’s kind of surreal. You know, he’s either hitting balls through the wall or over the wall, the at-bats are just incredible.”
Max Fried did not factor in the decision, but had a great outing Sunday. Fried gave up zero runs and allowed only four hits in seven innings while throwing 104 pitches, with 65 strikes. His counterpart, Merrill Kelly, did not give up any runs while allowing only three hits and two walks in seven strong innings. Both number one pitchers had their A-game today.
“It’s, you know, for me as a competitor, it allows me to go out there and dig deep for everything that I have to be able to finish it not,” explained Fried. “It’s a relationship that we’ve built over the last couple of years where I’ve been very honest with [Snitker] whether I’m feeling good or a little tired.
But if I don’t feel like I’m all the way up to … get the team the best chance to go out there and put up another zero to keep us in the game and win. And just being able to have that honest conversation with him. So for him to be able to walk out there in the middle of the game and look him in the eye and say what do you think? I feel really comfortable just being able to be honest.”
By his own admission, Fried was excellent today.
Braves closer Kenley Jansen picked up the win, his fifth of the season. Meanwhile, Diamondbacks reliever and former Brave, Mark Melancon, took the loss.
Meanwhile, the Braves will have an off day before a two game set against the Philadelphia Phillies before traveling to Queens for a massive five game weekend series against the National League East Leaders, the New York Mets.