ATLANTA _ Max Fried wasn't as sharp in his first home start as he'd been last weekend at Wrigley Field, but the Braves rookie got plenty of support from Atlanta's offense and beleaguered bullpen in a game that ended about as strangely as any in quite some time.
Ender Inciarte drew a four-pitch walk with bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning to give the Braves a 6-5 win at SunTrust Park. A walk-off walk, if you will, issued by Marlins reliever Kyle Barraclough.
Kurt Suzuki led off the ninth with his third single of the game _ he also reached base on a hit-by-pitch _ and advanced to second base on a Barraclough wild pitch that buzzed past Dansby Swanson's head as he fell to the ground to get out of the way.
Swanson drew a walk and fellow rookie Johan Camargo laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced both runners and brought up Adams, who faced an extreme shift with three Marlins on the left side of the infield and two on the right, all at the front edge.
He grounded to the shortstop and pinch-runner Micah Johnson was thrown out easily trying to score. Nick Markakis, in his first at-bat in three games since bruising his right wrist and missing three starts, drew a walk to load the bases. He had entered Saturday's game in the top of the ninth inning.
Inciarte didn't need to swing the bat, taking four balls and giving the Braves their third win in four games and clinched at least a split of the four-game series that ends Sunday.
Fried allowed six hits, four runs (three earned) and one walk with three strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings and got no decision in his second major league start.
Braves left fielder Matt Kemp made the defensive play of the game when he sprinted and dove to catch Marcell Ozuna's soft liner in the gap with the score tied and a runner at second in the seventh inning. Then he got to his feet and threw to second base to double up Christian Yelich, who had doubled to start the inning and was running on the Ozuna liner.
Camargo had a two-run homer in the fourth inning and an RBI single in the fifth, though his base-running mistake on the latter was costly.
The Braves trailed by two runs and had two on with one out in the fifth when Camargo singled to drive in a run and cut the lead to 5-4. He was thrown out trying to advance to second on a throw on the play, after initially slowing down past first base and then again as he approached second base.
Camargo didn't slide and was tagged out while trying to lunge a foot awkwardly toward the base at the last second.
There was still a runner at third with two out when Lane Adams followed with a ground out that ended the inning, a play that would likely have been just the second out if Camargo had run all the way and/or slid instead of going in standing up.
An inning later, the Braves tied the score with a run on singles from pinch-hitter Jace Peterson, Ender Inciarte and Freddie Freeman, who got the RBI hit.
Fried wasn't as efficient with his pitches as he'd been in his first major league start Sunday at Wrigley, when he picked up the win in his first start after limiting the Cubs to four hits, one run and three walks in five innings and threw 37 strikes in 62 pitches.
On Saturday he gave up a first-inning homer to major league leader Giancarlo Stanton, needed 23 pitches to get through a scoreless second inning, and was at 36 pitches after two.
Fried came back with a perfect third inning before running into trouble in the fourth, when the Marlins started the inning with two runs on three consecutive hits (including J.T. Realmuto's triple), followed by two-base error on first baseman Freeman and a ground-out that drove in the third run of the inning and pushed the Marlins' lead to 4-0.
The Marlins also got a two-out single from Dee Gordon and had runners on the corners with Stanton up when fellow rookie Lucas Sims replaced Fried and got the slugger to ground out to end the inning. Sims was bumped to the bullpen this week after making seven starts.
Fried finished with 43 strikes in 71 pitches, the most pitches he'd thrown since piling up 72 in 2 1/3 innings of a Double-A start June 29, his last game before spending three weeks on the disabled list for blisters on two fingers of his pitching hand.
The 23-year-old left-hander had allowed more than one run just once in 10 games _ five in the minors, five in the majors _ since returning from the DL, when he gave up three runs in 2 2/3 innings on Aug. 16 at Colorado. That was one of four relief appearances for Fried in his first major league call-up, before going to Triple-A for two starts, then getting recalled and making his first major league start at Chicago.
After the Marlins scored three runs in the fourth to open a 4-0 lead and chase Fried from the game, the Braves answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning, the big blow coming on Camargo's fourth home run, a two-run shot with one out.
Kurt Suzuki singled to start the fourth, and after Camargo's home run the Braves added another run in the inning when Lane Adams singled, advanced on bunts by Lucas Sims (sacrifice) and Ender Inciarte (base hit) and scored on an Ozzie Albies double.
Until the mutual three-run innings in the fourth, the game's only run had come on Giancarlo Stanton's one-out homer in the first inning, his majors-leading 54th and his 43rd homer in 94 games since moving into the No. 2 spot in the batting order. That's the second-most in major league history from that spot in the order behind Braves great Eddie Mathews, who hit 46 while batting second for the 1959 Milwaukee Braves.
Stanton's six home runs in 14 games against the Braves in 2017 are twice as many as his previous season high against them. He had only 13 homers in 102 career games against the Braves in seven previous seasons including just two in 145 career at-bats at Turner Field. His home run Saturday was Stanton's fourth in his 30th at-bat at SunTrust Park, all four coming in a span of 15 at-bats beginning with a two-homer game Aug. 4.
The Braves couldn't break through against Marlins left-hander Adam Conley until the fourth inning, though they had multiple chances earlier.
The loaded the bases in the first inning on a pair of two-out singles from Freeman and Matt Kemp followed by a Kurt Suzuki hit-by-pitch, but Dansby Swanson popped out foul to end the inning.
The Braves also had two on with one out in the second inning after Lane Adams walked and Fried reached on a sacrifice bunt when Conley's throw to second was too late. But Ender Inciarte grounded into a double play to end the inning.
After Camargo's two-run homer and an Albies RBI double in the three-run fourth inning the Braves had a chance to do more damage, but Freeman flied out with two in scoring position to end the inning.
