Fried, Bellinger, and Jazz lead Yankees past Guardians in series win

New York—The Yankees flipped the script on the Guardinas after losing 4-0 yesterday; they won 4-0 today to win the series. Max Fried got the nod for the Yankees, and Slade Cecconi took the ball for the Guardians.

Fried struck out the first two batters of the ballgame, then had to grind for the final out of the frame, eventually throwing 28 pitches in the first inning. 

In the bottom of the first inning, Aaron Judge was hit by a pitch with two outs, but Cody Bellinger flew out to end the inning. 

Freid worked an easy 1-2-3 top of the second inning and picked up his third strikeout of the ballgame in the process. 

In the top of the third inning, Fried retired the Guardians in order as he has now retired seven straight hitters and picked up two more strikeouts to put his total up to five for the game. 

Bellinger made a nice leaping catch at the wall to rob David Fry of extra bases in the top of the fourth inning and help Fried retire the Guardians in order.

"Yeah, you know, just timing up you know the wall and you know timing up the jump and just kind of seeing where you're just gaging the warning track," Beli said. "Max was pitching great, so he just had some good rhythm and easy to play defense behind that." 

Judge dunked a one-out double into the right field corner that just stayed fair for the Yankees' first hit of the game with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning. The next batter, Bellinger, made it a 2-0 Yankees lead thanks to his ninth home run of the season. 

"Well, Judge, you know, he got on base, and it was whatever inning it was," Beli said. "So for me, it was keep it simple, you know, try and get us on the board. And I saw a good pitch ahead. Just try to put my best swing on it." 

In the top of the fifth inning, with one out, Fried walked a batter to break up a streak of 11 straight hitters retired. But that runner was quickly erased thanks to a 5-4-3 double play to end the frame.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Austin Wells led things off with a line drive single 112 mph off the bat to right field, followed by a single up the middle from Oswald Peraza to put the Yankees in business with nobody out. Trent Grisham then worked a walk to load the base with still no outs, but Ben Rice grounded into an unfortunate double play, allowing the Guardians to walk Judge intentionally.  The next batter, Beli, flew out to dead center field as the Yankees had the bases loaded with no outs and managed not to score. 

Fried picked up his seventh strikeout of the ballgame and worked a 1-2-3 inning to get through six shutout innings. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the bottom of the sixth with a single right back up the middle. A few batters later, Jazz stole second and then moved up to third on a throwing error from the Guardians' catcher. But Jasson Dominguez struck out, and Wells flew out to strand Jazz at third. 

Mark Leiter Jr. replaced Fried on the mound in the top of the seventh inning and immediately served up a bloop single to Jose Rameriez. A few batters later, another batter reached via a single, then Volpe and Jazz gave Yankees fans flashbacks to the fifth inning of game five of the World Series, as Jazz wasn't able to make a play on a bad throw from Volpe to load the bases with one out. Tim Hill replaced Letier and picked up a strikeout and a flyout to strand the bases loaded. 

Max Fried's final line: six innings pitched, one hit allowed, zero earned runs, two walks, 17 swings and misses, and seven strikeouts on 103 pitches. Fried relied heavily on the fastball, throwing it 49% of the time, the curveball 26%, the sweeper 12%, the sinker 8%, the changeup 3%, and the cutter 3% of the time. Big bounce start for Fried after a rough one against the Dodgers on Friday, to lower his ERA to 1.78.

"I felt like I was mixing my pitches really well, working well with Austin," Fried said. "I feel like he had a really good feel of the game today and had a big meeting when he came out during that 3-1 count and be able to settle me down a little bit and be to get a big out. He's been doing a great job of learning me and seeing things throughout the game, and have been leaning on him a lot. And then on top of that, you have some really nice defensive plays. You know, Volpe, Beli, you know, a lot of, you know, just made my job a lot easier." 

Oswald Peraza led off the bottom of the seventh inning with his second single of the game. A couple batters later, with two outs, Judge was intentionally walked for the second time tonight. The next batter, Beli, made them pay for the intentional walk with an RBI single to make it 3-0, Beli’s third RBI of the game. The next batter, Jazz, made it a 4-0 game with an RBI single, his third hit of the night. 

Hill remained in the game in the top of the eighth inning and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning on just nine pitches. 

Jonathan Loáisiga replaced Hill in the top of the ninth inning and retired the Guardians in order to end this game 4-0 and give the Yankees the series win. 

The Yankees will start a new series tomorrow against the Red Sox. Will Warren will get the start for the Yankees, and Walker Buehler will take the mound for the Red Sox. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Fried delivered another great start tonight, after throwing 28 pitches in the first inning, which initially made it seem tough for him to go deep into the game. However, he was able to get through six shutout innings. Jazz had a nice three-hit night. It's been nice to have him back in the lineup. Great night from Beli as well with three RBIs and two hits. Peraza also had a great night with two hits, and the one time he did get out, it was a rocket to the deepest part of the yard in left center that the center fielder made a great play on. Hill was also great out of the bullpen, escaping a bases-loaded one-out jam in the seventh. Loáisiga also looked nasty in the ninth. On to tomorrow as the Yankees face off against the Red Sox for the first time this season.