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The Yankees got some very good news while they were enjoying a day off due to a rainout Tuesday as Max Fried is ready to return to the rotation and he’ll pitch the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Pirates. That and our usual trip around the major leagues. Let’s get to it.
Tuesday was a pretty good night to be a Yankees fan.
The Yankees didn’t lose, the Red Sox didn’t win, neither did the Orioles, and neither did the Blue Jays.
OK, there were circumstances. The Yankees were rained out against Pittsburgh, the Baltimore-Boston game was also rained out, and while it was glorious to see Toronto sink further into the basement of the AL East, the only downer is that it was the Rays who delivered the latest blow to the defending AL champs and so their lead in the division, by way of the Yankees’ inactivity, grew by half a game.
All that aside, the biggest reason why it was good night to be a Yankees fan is the first big star on their wounded list is ready to return. Max Fried, who hasn’t pitched since May 13 because of an elbow bruise, is going to skip his scheduled rehab start at Triple-A and instead will use the 60 pitches he was scheduled to throw for the Yankees as he’ll start the nightcap of Wednesday’s doubleheader.
Apparently because the rainout was called so early in the day, reporters did not have clubhouse access so there was no comment from Aaron Boone or Fried. Early on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on the Talkin’ Yanks podcast, Boone was asked about Fried’s progress and he said it was going well but he did not indicate that Fried was ready to return to the Yankees.
My guess is that in consultation with Fried, the decision was made to have pitch Wednesday in New York because with the doubleheader, the Yankees might have had to start Elmer Rodriguez, or possibly go with another bullpen game. Seeing that they just did that last Sunday when they played a twin bill against the Dodgers, letting Fried essentially pitch a rehab game for the Yankees made sense because it would keep the rest of the rotation on schedule.
Max Fried is back in the Yankees rotation, a move that came as a surprise considering that he was scheduled to throw a rehab game at Triple-A.
Fried made a rehab start for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last Friday and he allowed two runs on five hits in three innings of work with no walks and three strikeouts, throwing 52 pitches, 32 for strikes, strikes.
Gerrit Cole is pitching the opener which will now start at 1:05 and the second game is at 7:05. The Yankees then have a day off Thursday before starting a
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