NEW YORK -- The Yankees knew Max Fried wouldn’t be able to go deep into the game, but the left-hander’s return to the mound offered encouragement that their roster was becoming more whole. That was tempered by George Lombard Jr.’s early exit.
Fried tossed 63 pitches over 3 2/3 innings, and the Yankees stroked 13 singles to fuel an early rally and late surge, securing a split of a separate-admission doubleheader with a 9-2 victory over the Red Sox on Saturday evening at Yankee Stadium.
The division rivals have split their 12 games this season, setting up Sunday’s 1:35 p.m. ET contest to determine a potential playoff tiebreaker.
Lombard sustained the injury during a second-inning at-bat, appearing to tweak his right knee on a checked swing. Lombard remained in the game and stroked a single, but was lifted in the fourth inning. The Yankees said Lombard would undergo imaging on Saturday at New York-Presbyterian.
Fried missed time following his most recent start on Aug. 13 vs. Seattle, sensing a recurrence of a left elbow bone bruise that he likened earlier in the season to “the banging of two bones back there.” Touched for a Nick Sogard solo homer in the third inning, Fried permitted three hits and a walk, striking out four.
After being limited to one run through their previous 18 innings, the Yanks nicked bulk reliever Brayan Bello for a three-run third inning. José Caballero singled, stole second and scored on Ben Rice’s run-scoring single. Luis García Jr. and Jazz Chisholm Jr. picked up RBIs on a fielder’s-choice grounder and a sacrifice fly, respectively.
Paul Blackburn extinguished a two-on, none-out threat in the sixth, striking out two. Spencer Jones added a sacrifice fly in the home half to push New York further ahead. The Yankees broke the game open with five runs in the eighth.