Max Fried delivered a strong performance for the New York Yankees on Friday night, pitching six innings and allowing four hits, but the team’s offense could not provide support in a 1-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
Fried, who has been relied upon as a stopper this season, described his outing as “a good outing to get back on track.” He struck out seven batters and generated 19 swings and misses, relying more on his curveball than in recent starts. “I feel like a lot of times, I’ve been trying to use the fastball too much,” Fried said. “I just want to get back to throwing a bunch of different pitches in different counts, and being OK with taking some gambles.”
Despite Fried’s effort, Brayan Bello held the Yankees to three hits over seven scoreless innings. The Yankees managed only four baserunners and did not move any into scoring position. Jasson Domínguez commented on Bello’s pitching: “He was mixing it well. We couldn’t get something to give us some momentum.”
Boston scored the game’s only run in the seventh inning off reliever Mark Leiter Jr., when Connor Wong drove in Nathaniel Lowe with one of two consecutive doubles.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone addressed the team’s struggles against Boston, noting that since winning their first meeting of the year, New York has lost seven straight games to their rivals. The loss dropped the Yankees half a game behind Boston for the top American League Wild Card spot and left them trailing Toronto by 5 1/2 games in the AL East with 34 games remaining. The Yankees are now 4-14 combined against Boston and Toronto this season.
“I don’t like losing to them,” Boone said. “I don’t like losing to anyone. You never like losing to the Sox. They’ve had our number here for this stretch. We get a chance to change that tomorrow.”
Defensive miscues also played a role in Friday’s defeat. Austin Wells was doubled off on a lineout, and Anthony Volpe threw unsuccessfully to second base during an attempted play on Jarren Duran. Boone remarked: “It’s obviously not the right play, but it’s a little bit of a heady play, too. He almost caught a guy off in scoring position there.” Domínguez acknowledged his own mistake by throwing to third base instead of second later in the inning: “I thought I had a chance, but that throw should go to second.”
Volpe later redeemed himself by throwing out Duran at home plate during a fielder’s choice but continues to struggle offensively with one hit in his last 25 at-bats. Boone commented: “He hasn’t swung it great the last week after really getting it going there for a few weeks. These last two days, I feel like he’s just missed a couple of pitches.… We’ve got to get him going again offensively.”
Ben Rice summarized the team’s outlook heading into the rest of the series: “It’s been tough,” Rice said. “They’ve had our number so far. Now we’ve just got to focus on these next two games and try to split this series.”
