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BOSTON — Yankees starter Max Fried was mad at himself two batters into his start Wednesday night at Fenway Park. All it took was Willson Contreras working a five-pitch walk with one out in the Red Sox first.
The lefty hates walking batters anytime, but giving the Red Sox a free baserunner after being handed a 3-0 lead before he threw a pitch was unacceptable in the ace’s quest-for-pitching-perfection world.
The next inning, Fried became more upset at himself when leadoff hitter Andrew Monasterio walked and it led to a major threat after Jarren Duran doubled to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.
Neither free pass cost the Yankees any runs, but when Fried returned to the dugout after he struck out three in a row to escape the second-inning jam, he was approached by his pitching coach.
“Hey, it’s not working,” Matt Blake said. “When you’re gonna cut it out?’”
Blake wanted Fried to stop pitching with a windup with nobody on base because his command was much better from the stretch.
“You’re right,” Fried responded. “I just gotta cut it and figure it out.”
There was nothing to figure out.
Fried ended up scattering five hits over eight scoreless innings with nine strikeout and the Yankees won 4-1 to make it five in a row.
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Abandoning the windup was a big key.
“Sometimes when you’re in a stubborn mood (you’d be reluctant), but other times you’re willing to accept what’s been going on,” Fried said. “It’s not like it’s just been one game. It’s been every game this year.
“So after a month, you can sit there and say, ‘Hey, it’s just it’s not working. Let’s work on it in-between starts, see if we can figure it out.’ But if not, we know that the stretch is good and we can just roll with that.
This was a nice rebound start for Fried, who allowed a season-high five runs over 5 1/3 innings in a loss to the Angels in his previous outing.
“I definitely felt more like myself,” said Fried, who is 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA in six starts.
Fried, by the way, hopes to get back to pitching out of a windup at some point.
“The windup is something that I’ve always been really comfortable with and I really like,” he said, “but for whatever reason this year I’ve walked a ton of guys in the windup and I haven’t walked anyone in the stretch.
“So when you look at the numbers like that, you sit there and you walk two guys early on, knowing that the walks have really hurt me, especially with no one on base, I just said, ‘You know what? You’ve gotta suck up your pride and just say whatever’s working.’”
PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING
The Yankees were one strike away from making it three shutout wins in a row before Duran’s lefty-on-lefty single to center off Brent Headrick with two outs in the Boston ninth. Trevor Story scored from second base on the hit, having led off with a single and advancing into scoring position on a defensive indifference.
The scoreless-inning streak is over, but Yankees starters haven’t allowed a run over 27 2/3 innings heading into Thursday night’s series finale.
The Yankees will try to keep it going and sweep the Red Sox with New England native Cam Schlittler making his first career start at Fenway Park.
“It’s been incredible,” designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said. “They’ve been dominant. They’re really locked in. It’s easier on the offensive side when they’re dominant like that.”
ROTATION UPDATE
Boone expects left-hander Ryan Weathers to make his scheduled start Saturday night in Houston after leaving the Yankees on Wednesday to go on paternity leave.
Reliever Jake Bird was called up from Triple-A to take Weather’s roster spot.
HITLESS NIGHT FOR VOLPE
In his second week of rehab games, Anthony Volpe played for the second night in a row for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which lost 2-0 at home to Rochester.
Starting at shortstop and leading off, Volpe was 0-for-3 with a strikeout before departing after seven innings.
Volpe is hitting .333 with one homer and five strikeouts over 18 at-bats in six rehab games, the first four with Double-A Somerset last week.
The Yankees haven’t announced a ballpark return date for Volpe, who had offseason labrum surgery, but next week seemingly is a real possibility.
FAMILIAR FACE
In Volpe’s first two at-bats, he faced former Yankees farmhand Chandler Champlain, a 2022 ninth-round draft pick out of USC.
The righty was traded to the Royals in the July 2023 deal that sent outfielder Andrew Benintendi to New York, then released by KC this past March and signed by the Nationals five days later.
OSWALDO STRUGGLING
In his return season from a fractured leg, Oswaldo Cabrera didn’t hit much for the Yankees in spring training and he’s now followed his option to Triple-A with a slow start.
After going 1-for-3 on Wednesday, the switch-hitter is batting .162 with two homers and six RBIs in 19 games. In 46 plate appearances, he’s struck out 20 times.
Before spring training, Cabrera was fully healed from his horrific season-ending injury last May 12 in Seattle, a fractured left ankle on a slide into home plate.
Cabrera has been playing six positions for Scranton. He’s made eight starts at shortstop, three at third base, one at second, one at first, three in right field and two in left. His only error was in one of his 23 chances at short.
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