Yankees power past Rangers 4-2 behind Fried and the long ball
- Davis Cornell
- Apr 27
- 5 min read
The Yankees took down the Rangers 4-2 in game 1 of this three-game set. Max Fried got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Anthony Volpe's high school teammate, Jack Leiter, who was drafted by the Yankees in 2019 but decided to go to Vanderbilt instead.
Aaron Judge got plunked with two out in the top of the first, and Cody Bellinger grounded out to end the frame.
Fired worked around a leadoff infield single thanks to a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play and a strikeout to end the first inning.
José Caballero sent a one-out single up the middle in the top of the third, but immediately was picked off. Grisham then legged out an infield single. Ben Rice then crushed a two-out two-run home run to left center, his 10th of the year, to briefly tie him with Judge for the most on the team.
The next batter, Judge crushed a solo shot, his team leading 10th of the year, making it back-to-back jacks and giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
“Great, great,” Rice said. “To take up all the other way like that feels really good. And another big swing out of Judgy, too, right after. That was cool to see, so we're in a good spot.”
Fried worked a 1-2-3 shutdown in the bottom of the third and recorded his second punchout of the ballgame.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the fourth inning with a solo bomb, his third homer of the year, to extend the Yankees' lead to 4-0.
Fired surrendered a leadoff single to Josh Jung in the bottom of the inning, but a couple of pitches later, picked him off to help work a scoreless frame.
“It's something that I've worked on since I've been, you know, 8, 9, 10 years old with lead-offs and all that kind of stuff,” Fried said of his pick-off move. “The running game and holding runners is something that I take a lot of pride in.”
“It took some adjusting for me last year when, for his first few starts that I was playing first base,” Rice said of Fried's pick-off move. “At this point, I think I've got the hang of it, but I definitely would rather be a first baseman than a baserunner for it.”
Judge lined a two-out double in the left-center gap in the top of the fifth, his second knock of the night, but Belli bounced out to first to strand Judge.
Fried retired the Rangers in order in the bottom of the fifth and recorded his fourth strikeout of the night.
Jasson Dominguez, who was just called back up, dunked a bloop single to left with one out in the top of the sixth for his first hit of the season. However, Austin Wells struck out, and Ryan McMahon grounded out to second to strand Dominguez.
In the bottom of the sixth, Fried worked a scoreless inning thanks to a double play and recorded his fifth strikeout of the ballgame.
With two outs in the top of the seventh, Rice drew a walk, and Judge followed with his second double of the night and third hit of the ballgame to raise his OPS to 1.010. However, Belli popped out to strand Judge and Rice.
Camilo Doval replaced Fried on the mound in the bottom half of the seventh and served up a solo homer to Joc Pederson, cutting the Yankees' lead to 4-1.
Final line for Fried: Six shutout innings, four hits allowed, walked two, and struck out five on 89 pitches to lower his ERA to 2.09. Fried threw sinker 31% of the time, the curveball 17%, the fastball 15%, the sweeper 12%, the cutter 12%, the changeup 9%, and the slider 3%. Fried topped out at 96.6 mph and averaged 94.9 on his heater with swings and misses on the night.
“Just being able to mix it up, trust the defense, made some really good plays behind me tonight,” Fried said. “And yeah, just wanted to come out and put us in a good chance to win, especially after losing yesterday.”
“Typical Max Fried just filling up the zone, getting off the barrel, and just being tough at bat for all those guys,” Rice said.
Tim Hill came in relief for Doval in the bottom of the eighth and walked former Yankee farmhand Ezequiel Duran with one out. Then Jung walked with two away to bring the tying run to the plate, but Corey Seager grounded out to second and ended the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, Caballero was plunked to lead things off, then was thrown out after being pushed off the bag by Seager on his slide.
Yankees closer David Bednar got the call for the bottom of the ninth and served up an RBI single to Alejandro Osuna, making it 4-2; the run was unearned due to an error by Jazz that would have ended the game. Duran then grounded out to end the ballgame, giving Bednar his eighth save of the season and the Yanees the win.
“Always have a lot of confidence in him,” Rice said of Bednar. “He's got such good stuff and just has such a great mentality out there. So I always trust that he's going to get the job done.”
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow in a great pitching matchup between Cam Schlittler and two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. The first pitch is slated for 8:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Fried was dominant yet again, with six shutout innings putting the Yankees in a great spot to win. Doval served up a home run, but his stuff didn't look good. Hill walked the first two batters of the season to work into trouble and bent but didn't break. Bednar had a stressful ninth inning in large part due to shaky defense from Jazz, who had a bad throw that allowed the leadoff man to reach, then bobbled a ball with two outs. Rice, Judge and Jazz all went deep, accounting for all of the Yankees' runs. Judge went 3-for-3, reaching base four times and had three extra-base hits. Dominguez also had his first hit of the season in his 2026 debut. With Stanton getting placed on the IL, we will be seeing a whole lot more of him; hopefully, he takes advantage of this opportunity. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to win the series and improve to 10 games above .500.
“Low grade [right calf strain],” Aaron Boone said of Stanton. “IL, doesn't look too serious, but enough to not want to wait a couple more days.”
“He's been raking in AAA,” Judge said of Dominguez. “I think he was definitely upset not making the team out of camp. I think he's gonna show up here ready to prove some people wrong and kind of send a message. I'm excited about it.”
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