NEW YORK -- Even with the reduced sample size due to missing more than two months with a bone bruise in his pitching elbow, it feels unfathomable that Max Fried entered Thursday without a win at Yankee Stadium this season. After a stunning 8-2 record and a 2.37 ERA in the Bronx in 2025, it seems that this fact is more of an unlucky quirk, given how he’s performed at home (3.45 ERA in five outings), especially as of late.
Since returning from the injured list, Fried had tossed two scoreless outings at Yankee Stadium, the most recent being a brilliant 6 1/3-inning showing against the Braves this past Friday, in which he retired the final 12 batters that he faced. On Thursday, he pitched well enough against the Mariners to finally reap the benefits of some home cooking, but the Yankees' bats fell silent in a 1-0 loss. Fried battled through five innings, allowing one run on five hits while striking out four batters and walking two.
Though Fried’s pitch count got a bit elevated against a lineup that apparently made its gameplan “tough at-bats” this series, he notched his eighth start of the season in which he’s allowed one or fewer runs -- lowering his season ERA to 2.81. Over his past five starts, Fried has logged a 1.82 ERA and notched 29 strikeouts (24 2/3 innings).
“I thought stuff again was really good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “ … Sign me up for one run getting us into the middle of the game. We just obviously weren’t able to do much offensively. But I thought he threw the ball pretty well overall.”
Entering with a 1.13 ERA against Seattle in four career starts, the left-hander set the tone with back-to-back strikeouts against Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodríguez -- catching both looking with a cutter and sweeper on the inside corner of the plate. After a two-out walk to Dominic Canzone, Fried sawed off Cal Raleigh, getting the catcher to softly ground out to end the frame.
Fried’s only blip came in the second frame in a strange plate appearance against third baseman Weston Wilson. Fried caught Wilson off-balance with a 1-0 changeup, sending the right-handed hitter’s bat flying into the Mariners’ dugout. Three pitches later, Wilson crushed a cutter that caught a bit too much of the plate, sending it a couple rows into the left-field seats for a solo home run. It was the first home run that Fried had allowed in 10 starts since April 16.
Fried faced traffic on the basepaths the rest of the way (while still only allowing one runner outside of the homer to reach second base), but received considerable help up the middle thanks to a pair of double plays in the fourth and fifth innings from George Lombard Jr. and Jazz Chisholm Jr.
It’s possible that by the fifth frame, a bit of fatigue had settled in for Fried. The average velocity on his primary pitches had dropped from the previous inning -- especially on his sinker (93.1 mph to 91.2 mph). But even though at-bats dragged and his pitch count rose, there wasn’t really a moment during Fried’s outing where the danger of the Mariners’ bats waking up against him felt palpable.
When Fried struck out Rodríguez in the fifth inning on a payoff pitch with Arozarena running from first, you got the sense that the All-Star lefty did his job once again.
“Was definitely a grind, didn’t feel like I necessarily had my best stuff and was a little erratic,” Fried said. “But was able to make some big pitches, relied on Ali [Sánchez] and defense -- we had some really nice defensive plays today.
“Definitely wish I had that two-strike [pitch] back to Wilson. But all in all, [we] grinded and [it] was definitely a hard-fought game today.”
Thursday’s finale followed a shape that’s been well-molded over the past couple of weeks: New York’s pitching staff deals (allowing three runs or fewer in 13 of its past 20 games), and the offense bides its time to break through on a big chance. There’s a question about one’s stomach for these types of games -- Boone said it’s been “playoffs every day” -- and how sustainable success is in this way. But there’s still the belief that they’re a proving ground for what’s to come.
“We’re just trying to find a way to win games,” Lombard said. “Games like this are battles, and that’s how games are in October. So, yeah, it’s just kind of practice to find a way to win those types of games. [We’ll] just try to get the offense going and help out our pitchers.”