Max Fried fired 7.2 innings of shutout baseball to help lead the Yankees to a series win over the Rays

Tampa —The Yankees picked up a nice bounce-back 4-0 win over the Rays, after a brutal loss yesterday. Max Fried got the start for the Yankees, and Ryan Pepiot got the ball for the Rays. 

Trent Grisham wasted no time getting the scoring started as he launched a leadoff solo home run to make it 1-0 Yankees in the top of the first inning. 

Oswald Cabrera led off with a double into the right field corner in the top of the third inning.  Aaron Judge then picked up a broken-bat single to put runners at the corners. Cody Bellinger then legged out an RBI fielder's choice to make it a 2-0 game. 

Max Fried retired the Rays in order in the bottom of the third, to make it seven straight hitters set down in order. Thanks to some nice defense from Fried and the rest of the Yankees' infield. 

Trent Grisham made an unbelievable diving catch to rob Jake Mangum of extra bases and double up Danny Jasen trying to tag up to end the fifth inning. 

“Yeah, that was an incredible play,” Judge said. “Not only to make the diving play, but just having the self-awareness to know this guy might tag up on that, knowing he has to come up throwing, and he comes up with an accurate throw, to get it in there. He’s been doing incredible things, especially to lead the game off with a home run, and then making a diving play like that, he's doing it all for us right now.” 

In the top of the sixth inning, the slumping Cody Bellinger crushed a much-needed solo home run to make it a 3-0 Yankees lead. 

Chandler Simson picked up the Rays' first hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth, which was initially ruled an error, then changed two innings later to a hit.

In the top of the eighth inning, it looked like Aaron Judge had hit a long home run, but it was called foul. Even after the review, it was still somehow called a foul ball. The next pitch, Judge struck out looking, and Aaron Boone lost it, getting himself ejected from the game. 

“Yeah, that was a fair ball,” Judge said. “But, that's why we have replay, it's tough in a situation like this where we're at a minor league park, so the foul poles aren't as high. That's why you have replay; they have every angle, and yeah, that's a fair ball. I think everyone is kinda scratching their head about it, but there's nothing you can do about it, they missed it, and you have to move on.”

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Fried gave up a leadoff single, then picked up the first two outs of the eighth. Fernando Cruz came in to replace Fried and pick up the final out of the eighth. 

Max Fried’s final line: 7.2 innings pitched, two hits allowed, zero earned runs, two walks, and two strikeouts on 102 pitches. Fried was dominant today, generating a ton of weak contact and working quickly. Fried threw his fastball 36% of the time, sinker 19%, changeup 15%, curveball 15%, sweeper 10%, cutter 4%, and slider 2% of the time. 

“I'm just trying to be myself,” Fried said. “When I take the ball, I just want to make sure that we're in a really good position to win that day. When I prep, I just want to make sure I leave everything out there, no matter how I feel or whatever the circumstances are, if we come out with a win, that really all I care about.”

The Yankees added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning via a solo home run from Austin Wells, to make it a 4-0 Yankees lead. 

Cruz came back out for the bottom of the ninth, walked the first two batters, then settled in, picked up a strikeout, and induced a 6-4-3 double play to pick up the save and end the ballgame 4-0, to give the Yankees a series win over the Rays. 

“Yeah, it was a crazy series,” Cody Bellinger said. “I feel like yesterday's game was obviously a pretty wild one with some robed homers, then a low-scoring game the game before that. Max just came out and did his thing and pitched into the eighth inning, and you know, just playing behind him is special. He has some really good stuff, and we’re playing really well as a team right now, so it's just fun to be a part of it.” 

The Yankees will start a new series tomorrow in Cleveland against the Guardians in an ALCS rematch. Clarke Schmidt will take the mound for the Yankees, and Gavin Williams will get the start for the Guardians. The first pitch will be at 6:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: It was a great bounce-back win after a brutal loss yesterday. Max Fried was excellent, he tossed 7.2 innings of shutout baseball, giving most of the Yankees' bullpen some much-needed rest. Aaron Judge should have hit his eighth home run of the year in the eighth inning, but the umps clearly blew that call, then it somehow didn't get overturned on top of that. Three big home runs from Bellinger, Grisham, and Wells. Would love to see Bellinger get hot; that would be huge for the Yankees. Oswaldo Cabrera had a costly error in the ninth yesterday and two more today. It might be time to give Cabrera a day off and give Oswald Peraza a chance to start at third base. Great series win, it could have easily been a sweep, but it is what it is, on to Cleveland.