NEW YORK – Max Fried took a moment to appreciate the loud ovation cascading from Yankee Stadium’s most distant decks during the seventh inning on Tuesday night, his pinstriped postseason debut largely having lived up to expectations. With spotless work against his team’s oldest rival, he’d proven he was built for both the stage and the stakes.
Yet Fried had promised to “empty the tank,” and as the left-hander settled into the home dugout during Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series, there was a nagging feeling that he had more to offer. That became a prime talking point after the bullpen faltered in a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox, one the Yankees must now keep from defining their season.
“I want to pitch as long as I possibly can, until the ball gets taken out of my hands,” Fried said. “I definitely felt good.”
But the velocity numbers, according to Baseball Savant, suggest otherwise. Fried's sinker was at 96-plus mph and his cutter was hitting the 95-plus range early in Game 1, but in the sixth, both pitches were at 93-plus.
With Fried locked in against Garrett Crochet, fans on both sides were treated to a showdown between two of the game’s sharpest lefties, their pitch-for-pitch matchup echoing the taut battles their franchises have waged over the years.
Anthony Volpe’s second-inning homer put a lead in Fried’s back pocket, and the 31-year-old carried it forward, keeping Boston off balance all night.
“Fried pitched amazing,” said Paul Goldschmidt. “We were right in it. They were in it, too. Crochet did a great job. Both teams didn’t really have many scoring chances.”
Adding and subtracting from his six-pitch mix, Fried navigated traffic, including a pivotal pressure point in the fourth inning.
Fried lost Carlos Narváez to a two-out walk and surrendered an excuse-me opposite-field double to Nate Eaton. Working to a full count against Jarren Duran, Fried spotted an 82.6 mph sweeper up in the zone, producing a swinging strikeout.
No surprise registered in Fried’s eyes when he was asked to surrender the ball with one out in the seventh inning, and that was because of a conversation that took place the prior half-inning, according to manager Aaron Boone.
Boone sensed Fried had to work hard in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, a stance echoed by Boston’s Trevor Story, who said the Sox were “able to grind him down a little bit.” Because of that, Boone said he was “convicted” in making a bullpen call to begin the seventh.
“I felt like his command was not as good, those final few [innings],” Boone said. “He was making so many big pitches and his stuff was good. Look, he gave us what we needed, and [we] felt really good about the outing he put forth.”
Boone asked Fried if he had enough to face the left-hander Duran again; Fried said he did.
“I definitely exerted a lot of energy trying to get out of that [sixth inning],” said Fried, who recorded the out with his 102nd pitch, beating Duran to first base in a footrace after inducing a grounder to Goldschmidt. “But I definitely had enough in the tank for whatever the team needed.”
Fried became the seventh player to toss at least six scoreless innings in his first postseason appearance as a Yankee, and the first since Mike Mussina in the 2001 AL Division Series at Oakland. Including the regular season, Fried has gone 6-0 with a 1.37 ERA over his past eight starts (since Aug. 22).
With the Yanks suddenly facing elimination, Fried will have to watch as a spectator, hoping for another turn.
“We’ve been doing it over the last month and a half,” Fried said. “We’ve won a lot of series where we’ve dropped the first one and have been able to win the next two. It’s nothing new. We’ve got a lot of guys that believe in each other in here. We’ll be able to pick each other up, come out tomorrow and try to win a ballgame.”