Fried Shines as Yankees’ Big Bats Explode in 11-2 Sweep

New York—The Yankees dominated the Nationals 11-2 to complete the three-game sweep. Max Fried got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Cade Cavalli. 

Fried worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 top of the first inning and recorded his first strikeout of the ballgame.

In the bottom of the first inning, Trent Grisham wasted no time getting the scoring started for the Yankees, launching his sixth leadoff bomb of the year into the short porch in right field, his 26th home run of the year to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

Ben Rice followed that up with a line drive single up the middle, Aaron Judge was then hit by a pitch. The next batter, Cody Bellinger, then legged out an infield single to load the bases with nobody out. However, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jasson Dominguez struck out, and Anthony Volpe lined out to strand the bases loaded. 

Rice led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to right field. Judge followed that up by crushing a two-run home run into Monument Park, his 41st of the season, to make it a 3-0 game.

The next batter, Belli, made it back-to-back bombs with his 25th home run of the year into the Yankees bullpen to make it 4-0.

Grisham, Belli, and Judge now all have over 25 home runs, becoming the first trio of Yankees outfielders to accomplish that feat since the 1941 Yankees. 

The next batter, Jazz, worked a walk, then stole second base, his 23rd of the year. Dominguez then picked up an RBI ground rule double to make it a 5-0 game. A couple of batters later, Ryan McMahon broke this game wide open with a three-run home run into the Yankees' bullpen, his 18th of the year, to make it an 8-0 game.

In Rice's second at-bat of the inning, he launched his 22nd home run of the year to make it 9-0.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Dominguez legged out an RBI single to make it 10-0, to cap off a 41-minute nine-run half inning where the Yankees brought 15 men to the plate, and took 77 pitches to complete. 

"That was a long one for sure. No, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, but that was fun," Rice said.

Austin Wells joined the home run party in the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot to make it 11-0. 

In the top of the sixth inning, Fried served up his first three hits of the game, three straight singles, one of which was an RBI single to CJ Abrams to make it an 11-1 game. 

Paul Blackburn took over for Fried in the top of the eighth inning and worked around a one-out double to put together a scoreless frame. 

Max Fried's final line: seven innings pitched, four hits allowed, one earned run, two walks, eight swings and misses, and six strikeouts on 94 pitches. Fried threw his sinker 23% of the time, the cutter 21%, the sweeper 19%, the curveball 15%, the fastball 12%, the changeup 5%, and the slider 4% of the time. Fried is starting to look more like his usual dominant self in the last two starts. It's interesting to see he has cut down on his cutter usage a little bit after Adam Wainwright brought that up on the Fox broadcast in his start in St. Louis. 

"I just want to be able to put us in a position to win," Fried said. "The offense and the team's been picking me up when I was not throwing too well, so just trying to do my part." 

"It's awesome out of Max. I felt like everything was working well, getting a lot of weak contact," Rice said on Fried. "He was himself out there today. It was great."

Blackburn remained in the game for the top of the ninth inning and served up a solo home run to Andrés Chaparro to make it an 11-2 game, and the ballgame would end by that final score.

The Yankees will now head to the south side of Chicago to take on the White Sox in a four-game set. Will Warren will get the starting nod for the Yankees, and the White Sox pitcher is still TBD. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: What a performance from the offense, tallying six home runs, 11 runs, and 13 hits to complete the sweep. Fried also had his second dominant start in a row, putting together seven innings of one-run baseball. Plus, Blackburn closed things out, recording the final six outs. I’m not sure how much longer he will be on the team with Yery De Los Santos, hopefully getting re-called soon. On to tomorrow to face the White Sox, as the Yankees will hopefully look to win at least three out of four games.