Yankees pitcher Max Fried continued to struggle in the second half of the season, allowing four runs over five innings in a 7-1 loss to the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Fried, who had posted a 1.92 ERA through his first 17 starts as late as June 25, has now given up 29 runs (24 earned) in his last 36 innings, raising his ERA during that span to 6.00.
Manager Aaron Boone noted that while Fried was able to get ahead in counts, he had difficulty finishing off hitters. “Today, he was having a hard time putting guys away, and I think it’s just putting the ball in that next level of where he wants it,” Boone said about Fried. “I do think his stuff is good. He is throwing hard. His cutter looks good to me. The breaks on his pitches are good. … It comes down to command throughout. I feel like he has been a little bit scattered throughout.”
Fried said Houston’s lineup forced him to work for every out: “I tried to move the ball around a bunch. They were able to battle, put the ball in play,” Fried said. “I gave up a lot of hits, and there was a lot of traffic on the bases. Yeah, they really ground me down and put together some good at-bats in a game where I needed to come out … and get better results.”
The Yankees’ starting rotation has not provided length recently; Sunday marked the tenth consecutive game without a starter pitching beyond five innings—a trend Boone acknowledged is taxing on relievers. “We have to improve in that area. We have to get some outings [from the starters] where we get a little bit deeper. If we do that, I think we set up very well down in our bullpen,” Boone said.
Astros starter Jason Alexander limited New York’s offense by holding them hitless until Ben Rice singled with one out in the sixth inning; Rice was erased moments later when Aaron Judge grounded into an inning-ending double play.
“He avoided the barrel. … He was getting outs,” Rice said.
Said Boone: “He didn’t make a lot of mistakes and his changeup was good, kind of giving us a problem. But we have to be able to muster more than that. We didn’t pressure them enough at all, obviously. No hits there [for 5 1/3].
“That said, we knew he came off a good outing against Miami and followed it up today. I felt we had some good matchups there, [but we] just couldn’t punch through.”
New York scored its only run after Alexander exited when Jazz Chisholm Jr., facing Astros reliever Bryan Abreu, crossed home plate on Ryan McMahon’s sacrifice fly.
Since the All-Star break, offensive production has lagged for New York; over their last 22 games they are batting .216 as a team with several key players struggling at the plate.
“We have a few guys that need to get on track and are scuffling,” Boone said.
“… That’s the nature of the beast with offense a little bit. You are going to have some lulls. You have to be able to win games in other ways. I feel very confident in the offense and what we should be able to do. … Today was the day you felt like we should have been able to put some things together.”
The Yankees (62-56) remain third in their division—6½ games behind Toronto—and hold onto an AL Wild Card spot by just half a game over Cleveland after Sunday’s action.
“Obviously, we are feeling it. We know we have to be better. We have a much higher standard for ourselves and expectations,” Boone said.
“At the same time, we are in control of this. I wholeheartedly believe that we are going to get rolling and turn this thing around. When it does, then you start to build that next layer of confidence where guys are feeding off each other. It’s all talk right now.”
