Fried struggles, offense vanishes as Yankees lose the series

New York—The Astros dominated the Yankees 7-1 to win the series. Max Fried got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Jason Alexander.

Fried picked up the first two outs of the top of the first inning, then served up a solo home run to Jose Altuve to quickly make it 1-0 Astros. 

Ben Rice worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the first inning, but that would be all for the Yankees.

With two outs in the top of the third inning, Christian Walker made it a 2-0 game via an RBI double that Jasson Dominguez could have caught in left field with a 15% catch probability. 

In the bottom of the first inning, the Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, was ejected for arguing balls and strikes, as the home plate umpire, Derek Thomas, had been horrible so far. 

It looked like Fried stranded the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning, but Thomas blew a clear strike three call, leading to a two-run double to make it a 4-0 game.

Anthony Volpe, Ryan McMahon, and Austin Wells went down in order in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the Yankees still do not have a hit. 

Devin Williasm replaced Fried in the top of the sixth inning and struck out the side in order. 

Max Fried's final line: five innings pitched, eight hits allowed, four earned runs, one walk, and three strikeouts on 94 pitches. Fried threw his cutter 30% of the time, the curveball 21%, the sweeper 18%, the sinker 11%, the changeup 10%, the fastball 10%, and the slider just 1% of the time. Fried wasn't great today, but he also got no help from the home plate umpire. He now has a 6.00 ERA in his last seven starts since July 1st. 

"Yeah, they really grinded me down and put together some good at-pats," Fried said. "In a game where I needed to come out and have some good stuff and get better results, I didn't." 

Rice lined a single to left field with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Yankees finally had their first hit of the day. However, Rice was quickly erased due to a double play off the bat of Aaron Judge. 

Brent Headrick took over for Williams in the top of the seventh inning and put together a scoreless frame. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancorlo Stanton, who pinch hit for Dominguez, picked up back-to-back one-out singles. Anthony Volpe then worked a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Ryan McMahon followed that up with a sac fly to shallow left field that Jazz tagged up on to steal a run and make it a 4-1 game. 

Headrick remained in the game for the top of the eighth inning and worked around a two-out walk to put together another scoreless inning. 

Trent Grisham led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a walk, but Rice lined out, Judge flew out, and Cody Bellinger struck out to strand Grisham. 

Tim Hill took over for Headrick and immediately served up a solo home run to Carlos Correa to make it a 5-1 game. Ramón Urías dunked in an RBI bloop single due to the drawn-in infield to make it a 6-1 game. A couple of batters later, Mauricio Dubón legged out a two-out RBI infield single to make it a 7-1 game. McMahon made a beautiful play at third base to save another run and finally end the top of the ninth inning. 

The Yankees went down in order in the bottom of the ninth inning to end a frustrating one, 7-1, to lose the series. 

"We've got to be able to muster more than that,” Boone said. “Felt like we had some good matchups, but we just couldn't punch through."

The Yankees will start a new series tomorrow, welcoming the Minnesota Twins to town. Will Warren will get the starting nod for the Yankees and face off against Zebby Matthews. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Just a lifeless performance from the Yankees' offense today as they could only have three hits and one run. Fried needs to be better, as he has been brutal for over a month now. If this team wants to go anywhere, Fried has to pitch like an ace. Williams and Headrick were both great in the bullpen, but Hill was not good, allowing three runs. Not much more to say, just an unfortunate series that was very winnable, but Boone blew any chance of that after putting in Williams in extra innings on Friday. On to tomorrow, if there is any team that is going to allow the Yankees to turn this around, it's the Twins. 

"I wholeheartedly believe that we are going to get rolling and turn this thing around,” Boone said. “When it does, then you start to really build that next layer of confidence."