Fried shines, but the Yankees' offense disappears in a 1-0 loss to the Red Sox

New York—A good old-fashioned pitchers' duel tonight in the Bronx, but unfortunately, the Yankees were on the wrong side of it, dropping this one 1-0 to the Red Sox. Max Fried got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Bryan Bello. 

In the top of the first inning, Fried worked around a one-out single and picked up his first strikeout of the night to put together a scoreless frame. 

Ben Rice lined a one-out single to right field at 107.8 mph off the bat in the bottom of the first inning. In what should have been a four-pitch walk to Aaron Judge ended up being a strikeout looking due to three horrible calls from the home plate umpire, Lance Barrett. Cody Bellinger then flew out just in front of the warning track in right field to end the first inning. 

Fried worked an easy 1-2-3 top of the second inning and recorded two more strikeouts to put his total up to three for the ballgame. 

After a quick one-minute delay due to a squirrel being on the field, Fried walked a batter. However, Fried was able to wiggle around the walk and recorded his fifth punchout of the ballgame. 

Judge, Belli, and Jazz Chisolm Jr. went down in order for the Yankees in the bottom of the fifth inning. 

In the top of the fifth inning, Fried gave up a couple of bloop singles but picked up a groundout and a strikeout to work into and out of trouble. 

Fried worked an easy 1-2-3 inning on just seven pitches and picked up his seventh strikeout of the ballgame to get through six shutout innings.

Austin Wells led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a line drive single to right field. However, Austin Wells was doubled up on a lineout off the bat of Trent Grisham due to some bad base running from Wells. 

Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Fried in the top of the seventh inning and served up back-to-back doubles to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. 

Max Fried's final line: six innings pitched, four hits allowed, zero earned runs, three walks, 19 swings and misses, and seven strikeouts on 99 pitches. Fried threw his sinker 23% of the time, the curveball 17%, the cutter 16%, the fastball 14%, the changeup 12%, the sweeper 11%, and the slider 6% of the time. Fried was awesome tonight, hands down his best start in the last month and a half, but unfortunately, the offense did nothing, and the bullpen immediately gave up a run after taking out Fried. 

"I was using both sides of the plate, using all my pitches and, you know, just getting back to pitching," Fried said. "I felt like a lot of the times I've, you know, just trying to maybe overstuff, just use the fastball too much, trying to being a little bit predictable and just wanting to get back to throwing a bunch of different pitches and different counts and, you know, being okay with taking some gambles." 

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Judge, Belli, and Jazz went down in order for the Yankees, as they have yet to get a runner to second base tonight. 

Devin Willaism replaced Leiter in the top of the eighth inning and retired the Red Sox in order with a couple of strikeouts. 

Dominguez, Volpe, and the pinch-hitting Giancarlo Stanton went down in order for the Yankees in the bottom of the eighth inning. Volpe received some loud boos from Yankee fans. 

David Bednar was called upon to replace Williams in the top of the ninth inning and walked the leadoff batter, Jarren Duran. Duran then stole second base, and the next batter grounded one to Volpe, and for whatever reason, he decided to throw it to second base, so the Yankees didn't get any outs. Volpe then made up for it with a nice throw to gun down Duran at the plate. Bednar then picked up a groundout to keep it a one-run game. 

"Obviously not the right play," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said regarding Volpe's poor decision to throw to second base. "I mean, are we going to really dive into that one a lot? I mean, I get it, he wasn't out, but it's kind of a heads up [play], almost got a guy napping." 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Yankees went down without a fight against former Yankee Aroldis Chapman to lose this one 1-0 as the Red Sox jumped the Yankees in the Wild Card standings, and the Yankees didn't get a runner to second base all night long. 

"He's a good pitcher," Rice said on facing Crochet tomorrow. "We're just going to have to go out there and have a good team approach and just do our best." 

The Yankees will look to avoid losing the series tomorrow with Will Warren on the mound, facing off against Garrett Crochet, an AL Cy Young award contender. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees can’t beat good teams, as they are now 1-7 against the Red Sox this season and 4-14 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays. The offense did nothing tonight with just three hits and couldn't even get a runner to second base. Fried deserved better; this was his best start in the last month and a half, and the first time since July 6 that he made it through four innings without giving up a run. The bullpen was solid tonight, other than Leiter, but I’m not going to blame this loss on him when we couldn't even get a runner into scoring position tonight. Williams was awesome tonight in the eighth, and Bednar was shaky in the ninth, but did put together a scoreless inning. The home plate ump, Lance Barrett, was horrible tonight; that was by no means why the Yankees lost, but it definitely didn't help. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees must win against one of the best starters in baseball, in Crochet. 

"I don't like losing to them," Boone said about losing seven straight games to the Red Sox. "I don't like losing anyone, but we never want to lose to the Sox. And they've had our number here for this stretch, and we get a chance to change that tomorrow."