Fried shines as Yankees blank Giants 7–0 to open season
- Davis Cornell
- Mar 25
- 3 min read
Seven runs, shutdown pitching, and a statement start, as the Yankees opened their season with a 7-0 win over the Giants.
Max Fried ran into some trouble in the bottom half of the first inning due to Trent Grisham not being able to track down a shallow fly ball in center with a 95% catch probability, putting runners at the corners with one out. But no harm, no foul, as Fried recorded a strikeout and induced a groundout, keeping it a scoreless ballgame.
The Yankees got the scoring started in the top half of the second. Giancarlo Stanton lined a single to center for the Yankees' first hit of the year; the next batter, Jazz Chisholm Jr., was plunked. Jose Caballero followed with an RBI double, making it a 1-0 ballgame.
Ryan McMahon was down 0-2 in the count before driving a two-run single right back up the middle.
Austin Wells kept the hit parade going with a single of his own. Grisham drove in Wells and McMahon via a two-run triple, extending the Yankees' lead to 5-0.
“Just be ready for a pitch, we know he's (Logan Webb) a strike thrower,” Grisham said. “So yeah, I think we executed the plan pretty well. Just be ready.”
Fried got on a roll, retiring seven straight Giants hitters before surrendering a two-out single to Heliot Ramos in the bottom of the fourth.
“Definitely was a little out of it, but you know, all the credit goes to the offense,” Fried said. “You put up five runs, and it allows me to just take a deep breath and be able to just go out there and attack.”
In the top of the fifth, the Yankees tacked on two more runs thanks to an RBI single from Stanton, 114.4 MPH off the bat. The next batter, another run came across to score on a throwing error from Willy Adames, trying to double up Jazz.
The Yankees ended up tagging one of the best pitchers in baseball, Webb, for seven runs, with six of them being earned.
Fried came back out for the bottom of the seventh inning and picked up the first out before handing the ball over to Jake Bird, who recorded a strikeout and induced a groundout to put together a scoreless outing.
Fried tossed 6.1 shutout innings, allowing two hits, walking a batter, and striking out four on 86 pitches. Fried threw his fastball 24% of the time, the cutter 22%, the sinker 19%, the curveball 15%, the sweeper 8%, the changeup 8%, and the slider 3% of the time. Fried had six whiffs tonight and topped out at 96.4 mph.
“You're just in the zone, you're just trying to stay locked,” Fried said. “You can't take your mind off the game because they're going to jump you.”
Brent Headrick came in relief for Bird in the eighth inning and quickly picked up the first two outs, then allowed a single to Luis Arraez before walking Matt Chapman. But Headrick got Rafael Devers to fly out to Grisham in center field to work a scoreless frame.
Camilo Doval got the call for the bottom of the ninth inning and navigated around an error from Caballero to put together a scoreless ninth and give the Yankees a near-perfect 7-0 Opening Day win.
The Yankees will be back in action Friday afternoon with Cam Schlittler on the mound for the Yankees, facing off against 2021 AL Cy Young award winner Robbie Ray. The first pitch is slated for 3:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: You couldn't have asked for a much better way for the Yankees to kick off their season. Fried pitched a gem, tossing 6.1 innings of shutout baseball, and the bullpen shut the door behind him. Bird who really struggled with the Yankees last year looked nasty against the two batters he faced. The offense was outstanding, as everyone in the lineup except Aaron Judge had a hit tonight. McMahon and Grisham each had two RBIs, and Stanton and Wells each had multi-hit games. Really, the only downside was Judge going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, the dreaded golden sombrero, but no better time than now to get his worst game of the season out of the way. On to Friday, as the Yankees will look to win the series, I’m happy to be back.
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