Fried looks to have hardly missed a step in scoreless return from IL

NEW YORK -- Max Fried was among the last people to find out that he’d be starting Game 2 of the Yankees’ doubleheader on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Manager Aaron Boone said the deliberations on the club’s pitching plan started on Tuesday when that evening’s game was rained out, with an interesting rotation crunch lying ahead for the weekend set in Philadelphia.

Boone, bench coach Brad Ausmus and the pitching-coach triumvirate led by Matt Blake first met, then came the talk with the trainers to get their opinion on Fried’s readiness to return fully (as he was also slated to throw on Wednesday, regardless). With the trainers’ go-ahead, Boone and the rest of the coaching staff brought Fried in when the lefty arrived at the ballpark to present their plan to him.

And according to Boone, Fried needed little convincing to be on board.

“Max walked in and was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Boone said.

It’s no wonder why Fried was raring to get back onto a Major League mound. In his return against the Pirates, he was stellar, despite being on a pitch count due to still building back up from his left elbow bone bruise. He tossed five scoreless innings and struck out seven batters, allowing just one hit and one walk -- creating a runway for the Yankees’ 2-0 win in the finale. He threw 57 pitches, with 37 of them going for strikes, and produced 10 swings and misses.

It didn’t take long for Fried to surpass almost everyone’s expectations for what a return from a 57-game absence could look like.

“He looked great, obviously,” Boone said. “Frankly, as good as he’s looked all year, in any of his other starts. You’re kind of hoping he can get you three innings, maybe 10 outs. And to be that efficient to throw five innings shutout, I thought [he] was really sharp from the jump.”

Fried received a little help from his defense from the outset. He allowed a leadoff base hit down the left-field line to Nick Gonzales, but Cody Bellinger corralled the ball in shallow left field and fired a one-hop dart to second base to nab Gonzales. And Ryan McMahon turned in a couple dazzling plays on ground balls ranging to his left to help turn in a clean game. But from there, it was relatively smooth sailing for Fried, where he rarely looked like a pitcher who hadn’t thrown in the Majors since May 13.

On his first strikeout, Fried blew a 98.3 mph fastball past Bryan Reynolds to end the first inning. The left-hander only allowed two hard-hit balls out of the eight that were put into play. There were moments where it seemed like Fried had barely broken a sweat, like when he retired the last 12 batters he faced. His average velocity on all but one of his pitches -- his cutter, which sat at his season’s mark of 92 mph -- was up on Wednesday night. For Boone and the legion of Yankees fans, it looked like “peak Max” out there, a genuine sight for sore eyes.

“Definitely a lot of adrenaline,” Fried said. “Found out yesterday, obviously, that it was even a possibility. So, didn’t have much time to prepare, but I think it’s almost better. You just gotta show up and just compete.

“This is my favorite thing to do. So being out the last couple months is really tough. But, coming out, giving us a chance to win and getting back out there and feeling the energy -- it felt normal. And I was happy about that.”

The offensive breakthrough came in the seventh inning after reliever Paul Blackburn shut the door on a budding Pirates rally. After Bellinger walked, Jasson Domínguez roped a two-out double down the left-field line, with Bellinger racing to score from first base and break the tie. Anthony Volpe, who got the start at shortstop for Game 2, immediately followed up with an RBI single to left field.

New York’s relievers in the nightcap -- Angel Chivilli, Blackburn, Will Warren and Tim Hill -- patched together four scoreless innings to complete the club’s ninth shutout of the year. It was a continuation of the relief corps’ recent dominance, leading the Majors with a 2.27 ERA over the past 42 games, despite the shifting plans. (Warren, who threw to four batters in the ninth, found out Wednesday morning that he’d be an option out of the bullpen for Game 2, even though he was slated to start the series opener in Philly on Friday.)

But the highlight was how the oft-dreamed-about 1-2 punch of Gerrit Cole and Fried came to fruition during the first day the two pitchers were active on the Yankees roster at the same time. The two aces felt like watching a rerun of “Freddy vs. Jason,” carving up the Pirates on either end of the doubleheader -- the type of impact that the club is hoping to hold onto for a long time.

“It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a while now,” Fried said. “And it kind of sucks that I got hurt when I did to delay that. But, better late than never.”