Max Fried Was Dealing as Yankees Avoid Sweep

This was not a banner series in Detroit as the Yankees dropped the first two games because their offense disappeared, and then avoided the sweep - barely - because closer Devin Williams, though he sure tried, couldn’t quite completely undo a magnificent start from Max Fried. Lets get to it. 

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Max Fried banked $218 million from the Yankees in December when he signed the richest contract ever given to a left-handed pitcher, and at the time, we all had visions dancing in our heads about Fried and Gerrit Cole forming one of the best top-of-the-rotation tandems in MLB.

Well, that blew up along with Cole’s pitching elbow in March, and then when Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt got hurt, whether it was fair or not, all of the sudden Fried was carrying a burden about the size of his contract.

We’re two weeks into the season and it feels like every time Fried takes the mound, it’s going to be a near must-win situation for the Yankees because the rest of this rotation, to be kind, is garbage.

Yes, it’s early, but what’s going to change unless Brian Cashman does something to improve it? Cole is done for the year. Schmidt will come back next week and he’ll likely be a mediocrity as he works himself back into shape, and then knowing Schmidt he’ll get hurt again. Gil is supposed to be back in the early summer, but what will he be after so much time off?

In the meantime, the Yankees are trotting out Fried, the rollercoaster ride that is Carlos Rodon, and three stiffs in Marcus Stroman, Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco. It’s untenable, which is why Fried has to be great every time out, and he certainly was Wednesday in the ice box that was Comerica Park in Detroit.

Man, that was some outing as he pitched seven scoreless innings allowing just five hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts and he got credit for the 4-3 victory even though the Yankees’ newest disaster-in-waiting closer, Devin Williams, nearly blew the game.

“Wow, that was incredible out of him,” said Aaron Judge. “Especially coming out, we lose the first two games of the series, kind of down, offense isn’t getting much going. For him to come out there and give us some strong innings, some big outs on his end, even when he got a couple guys in scoring position and got into a little trouble, he really buckled down and helped seal it for us. That was really impressive.”

Fried’s debut at Yankee Stadium was rocky because he had no command and couldn’t even pitch the required five innings to get the win on a day when the Yankees scored 20 runs. His next start was better, but the caveat was that it came against the awful Pirates, 5.2 innings with one run allowed to get his first pinstripe win. Wednesday, he was great from start to finish against a playoff-caliber team as he had everything working, especially his curveball.

“That was a dominant performance,” Aaron Boone said. “He was the catalyst. What I like is he loves the competition. He relishes that opportunity. When you’re really good, like he is, there’s a reason for that. He likes being in the fire out there, he likes competing. He’s got so many different ways to beat you and it was just a big-time performance there.”

Now, the Yankees have to somehow find a way to survive until Fried pitches again sometime early next week at home against the Royals. It’s gonna feel like a long wait, and the journey to get there is sure to be treacherous.

April 7: Tigers 6, Yankees 2

➤ I’ll start by saying that Carlos Rodon didn’t pitch poorly in the series opener, but he didn’t pitch well enough and my issue with him is that it happens far too often. He can be going along fine, looking great in fact, but then he makes the killer mistakes and just like that, his outing blows up. In a season where the Yankees will not have Gerrit Cole, and they won’t have Luis Gil until who knows when, that’s just unacceptable from the No. 2 starter in the rotation. Especially knowing that Wednesday, the pitching matchup was impossibly lopsided in favor of the Tigers.

➤ Rodon’s biggest issue is his head. Something goes wrong and he just can’t seem to overcome it. Case in point, the third inning. He had Ryan Kreidler struck out on a 3-2 pitch but the umpire blew it and called it ball four. It was a terrible call, no doubt, and it put men on first and second with one out. Rodon then struck out Justyn-Henry Malloy, but then he threw a bad changeup to Andy Ibanez who promptly sent it over the wall in left for a three-run homer. Malloy should have been the third out, but instead, it was 3-0 Tigers.

➤ Then in the fifth, Oswaldo Cabrera booted a ball at third and Rodon walked Jake Rogers so it’s first and second, no outs. A sacrifice moved them up, and Rodon left a fastball over the middle of the plate on a 2-2 offering and Malloy whacked it for a two-run single to make it 5-1. Rodon did eat six innings and struck out eight which was good, but six runs allowed, five earned on four hits and three walks was not good.

➤ As for the offense, pretty quiet on a brutally cold day as Casey Mize pitched six strong innings and three relievers - including former Yankee Tommy Kahnle - protected Mize’s victory. Aaron Judge had an RBI single to drive in red-hot Trent Grisham who had singled in the fifth, and in the eighth, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt singled and one run scored when Jazz Chisholm reached on an error. That was it. The Yankees had seven hits, only one for extra bases, a triple by Ben Rice who then managed to get himself picked off with Judge at the plate in the third when the game was still scoreless.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Boone on the offense: “I thought we were very close there to really putting together a couple big innings. Mize, I thought, pitched well. But, actually, up and down the lineup, we had good at-bats. We just missed a handful of pitches. That’s hitting sometimes. He just beat us today.”

• Boone on Rodon: “I thought he threw the ball great. I really did. That 3-2 call, I mean, looked like right there. And then the yanked changeup that cost him. He doesn’t get a call and the one mistake that turned into a three-run homer - kind of yanked the changeup a little bit and Ibáñez got him. But outside of that, I thought he was excellent.”

• Rodon on the bad call: “Not so much that I didn’t move on, I’m obviously frustrated with the call, but it was called a ball and it was a walk, so I tried to move on quickly. I wouldn’t say it affected me. Obviously it’s in the back of my head, obviously I want that pitch called a strike, but it wasn’t. Then I gave up a three-run homer, that’s what hurt me. Frustrating that I’m falling behind those guys and just need to be better with getting strike one and getting ahead of those guys. I’m definitely tired of walking people.”

April 8: Tigers 5, Yankees 0

➤ If you happened to be on X at the start of the game Tuesday, after Goldschmidt and Rice led off with back-to-back singles against 2024 Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, Judge, Chisholm and Anthony Volpe put up three straight shitty at bats, the rally died, and I tweeted at that moment:

➤ Obviously I was right. Skubal is great, and he made mincemeat of the Yankees. He retired 16 men in a row before Goldschmidt singled in the sixth. Rice then whiffed and Judge blooped a single so it was first and second again, but Chisholm - who has been flat out terrible at the plate - popped out and that was it. Skubal’s day was done and he gave up four singles in his six innings with no walks and six K’s.

➤ Meanwhile, Carlos Carrasco was no match, which we all knew going into the game. After an easy first, he gave up a run in the second when Spencer Torkelson doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach McKinstry. Then in the fourth it was batting practice as he served up three gopher balls to Torkelson, McKinstry and Dillon Dingler that made it 4-0. Ryan Yarborough came on in the fifth and he got taken deep by Kerry Carpenter to close the scoring.

➤ The Yankees managed just six singles - three by Goldschmidt, two by Judge, one by Rice - and drew just one walk, they went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and they failed miserably in their plan to attack early in the count. Skubal threw only 87 pitches and then Brant Hurter threw 40 to cover the last three innings. Just a bad day for the offense which has gone into hibernation after the big start.

➤ Bellinger, who missed two games in Pittsburgh with a tight back, got food poisoning Monday night. Bad wings, he said, which serves him right for trusting wings anywhere outside western New York! That gave Grisham another chance to start but this time he went 0-for-3.

➤ Ian Hamilton made his season debut and worked around a leadoff single and struck out two in the seventh. Fernando Cruz threw a great 1-2-3 eighth on nine pitches.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Boone on Skubal’s dominance: “He got a little bit of a lead there and really goes on the attack,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “He put us on our heels a little bit. …Today, Skubal got a lead and beat us, period. He’s got everything. So he won that Cy Young for a reason. Having three outstanding pitches with that deceptive delivery makes him hard to get a bead on.”

• Carrasco: “I just missed a couple spots right there. When you have command, everything’s completely different. But I missed a couple spots and I got hurt.”

• Bellinger on his bad wings: “They were good coming in. I woke up at 4 a.m. sweating and just started throwing up for a few hours. It was a tough morning. … I was down bad. I can say I will not eat wings for five years. I swear. Because the thought of it right now makes me sick.”

April 9: Yankees 4, Tigers 3

➤ There was a whole lot to unpack in the ninth inning. Let’s start with the Tigers who gifted the Yankees two runs which wound up being extremely important. It started with the Yankees ahead 2-0 and JC Escarra getting hit by a pitch after Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler dropped two foul pops in almost the identical spot behind the plate. Not sure I’ve ever seen that before. And then John Brebbia, the Tigers pitcher, followed by also hitting Cabrera. Next, Rice hit a double-play grounder to second and Colt Keith booted for an error to load the bases, and that set up Judge to rip a two-run single through a drawn-in infield to make it 4-0. Thanks fellas.

➤ Little did we know how big those runs would be because in the bottom of the ninth, Devin Williams came in and threw up all over himself. Again. This guy has been a massive disappointment as the new closer and he’s every bit as much of an agita creator as Cardiac Clay Holmes. The great changeup that we keep hearing about? He can’t throw it for strikes, and he can’t put batters’ away.

➤ The trouble started started with a nine-pitch walk to Torkelson after he had gotten ahead 0-2 in the count, but Williams seemed to right himself with back-to-back strikeouts before it all went to hell. Baez singled, former Yankee farmhand Trey Sweeney walked on eight pitches after Williams again got ahead 0-2 and couldn’t put him away. Then he threw a wild pitch that scored a run and McKinstry drove in two with a single. And on that hit, Judge stupidly threw home, missed the cutoff man and McKinstry cruised into second as the potential tying run. Terrible baseball. Finally, Mark Leiter came in and got Malloy to pop out to end the near nightmare.

➤ As I said above, Fried was spectacular. And Luke Weaver worked the eighth, allowing a single before Williams did his best to waste everyone’s fine efforts. So far, Williams almost blew the Opening Day game in a 36-pitch fright fest; he went on the paternity list (congrats by the way) and missed the Arizona series; he worked a decent inning in a blowout win last Friday over the Pirates in a non-save situation because he needed work; then gave up the losing hit in extra innings to the Pirates Sunday. His ERA is now 12.00.

➤ What a miserable offensive series for the Yankees. Chisholm continued to look clueless as he went 0-for-12 and his average is down to .180; Bellinger was 1-for-8 and he’s down to .206; Volpe was 0-for-10 and he’s at .234; Dominguez was 0-for-6 and is at .205; and Wells was 1-for-8 and he’s down to .189. Luckily Judge, Goldschmidt, Cabrera, Grisham and Rice are picking them up. In fact, Rice’s two-run homer in the seventh snapped a 16-inning scoreless streak for the Yankees. We can only hope warmer weather will reignite this sagging offense.

➤ Here’s what one of my favorite follows on X, actor Nick Turturro from NYPD Blue fame and the craziest Yankee fan there is, had to say about Devin Williams:

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Fried on facing Tigers starter Jack Flaherty, his high school teammate, who threw six scoreless innings: “We’re both competitive, and so we knew we were locked in and had a job to do. But it was fun. It was a cool experience, but we lost the first two of the series, and I just wanted to make sure that I did whatever I could to keep us in the game to hopefully come out with the win.”

• Williams on his struggles: “I’m still figuring stuff out. I haven’t felt like 100 percent myself up to this point, but I would say I’m getting closer, for sure. It’s hard as a reliever to do stuff in between outings. But this isn’t the first time I’ve started the season off on the wrong foot. All you can do is keep working.”

• Boone on Williams: “I’m confident this is going to be a distant memory as we continue to move forward, because he’s not that far off. Just a little bit better strike throwing and once he starts doing that and dictating counts, then you’re going to see it, because the stuff’s not far off. He’ll be fine. He’ll get through this, just early part of the season.”

The Yankees traveled home Wednesday, have an off day Thursday, and open a six-game homestand Friday with three against the San Francisco Giants who have been one of the surprise teams out of the gate. They won eight of their first nine games and were actually in first place in the NL West ahead of the Dodgers, then lost two to Cincinnati before avoiding a sweep Wednesday when Mike Yastrzemski hit a walk-off two-run homer in the 1oth to cap a rally from down 6-1.

Here are a few of their top players to watch:

➤ SS Willy Adames: He was the Giants big offseason free agent signing and he’s off to a rough start with a .465 OPS.

➤ OF Jung Hoo Lee: He was a big free agent last year from Korea who missed all but 37 games due to a shoulder injury but is back this season and is proving to be a pesky hitter with a .375 on-base and an MLB-high seven doubles.

➤ C Patrick Bailey: A solid defender behind the plate who is off to a terrible start with the bat, though he did have an RBI triple Wednesday.

➤ 3B Matt Chapman: One of the best fielders at his position in MLB who hit 27 homers last year but is still trying to find it this season.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Friday, 7:05 on YES, Marcus Stroman (7.27) vs. Robbie Ray (3.18) who has won his first two starts.

• Saturday, 3:05 on YES, Will Warren (6.00) vs. Jordan Hicks (2.38), a flamethrowing converted reliever who has a 3.67 strikeouts to walk ratio in his first 11.1 innings this year.

• Sunday, 1:35 on YES, Carlos Rodon (5.19) vs. Logan Webb (1.89) who is the ace of the Giants’ staff who has led the NL in innings pitched the last two seasons, and made three starts this year and struck out 21 men in 19 innings.