Max Fried lived up to his billing as a frontline starter in the first season of an eight-year contract signed before the New York Yankees knew just how important he would be because of an injury to Gerrit Cole.
Fried is off to a stellar start to his second campaign in pinstripes and will be on the mound when the Yankees host the Miami Marlins in the finale of a three-game series on Sunday afternoon.
The Yankees are attempting to earn their fifth straight win and get off to an 8-1 start for the first time since 2020. New York followed up its 8-2 win on Friday by hanging on for a 9-7 win Saturday.
Giancarlo Stanton had his first regular-season stolen base since 2020 and hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth. Cody Bellinger drove in three runs and hit a two-run homer while the Yankees had 10 walks to give them 21 in the past two games.
“It’s a scoring competition, not a hit competition,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So however it comes, it’s about putting runs on the board.”
Fried (2-0, 0.00) went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 32 starts last season when he set career highs for wins, starts, innings (195 1/3) and strikeouts (189).
During New York’s season-opening six-game road trip, he gave up five hits and struck out 10 in 13 1/3 scoreless innings of wins at San Francisco and Seattle.
In the season opener against the Giants on March 25, the left-hander allowed two hits and registered four strikeouts. Against the Mariners, Fried allowed three hits in seven innings of a 5-0 win.
Fried has 10 scoreless starts since joining the Yankees and the only instance of consecutive shutout starts last season was April 27 and May 2 when he tossed 13 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays.
“It’s incredible,” Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra said. “I can’t go wrong with what I call when he has all these pitches going. It makes it easy for me, and easy for him.”
Fried did not face the Marlins last season when the Yankees were swept in Miami. He is 6-4 with a 4.23 ERA in 16 career starts against the Marlins.
The Marlins collected 15 hits Saturday but also struggled by not finding the strike zone and allowing two runs on passed balls from catcher Agustin Ramirez.
Miami’s Chris Paddack (0-1, 18.00) makes his second start after a rocky debut with the club. In Monday’s 9-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Paddack allowed eight runs in four innings.
Paddack’s struggled after going 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA in five spring training starts for the Marlins, who signed him to a one-year deal Feb. 12 after the right-hander split last season with the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers.
“Not how I envisioned my Marlins debut by any means, but I’ve been here before,” Paddack said. “It’s not an ideal situation to be in to start the year. Especially coming off a really good spring, having some confidence going into the season.”
Said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough: “Results aside, we’ll get a lot better days out of Chris. He’s a pro. He’ll flip the page.”
Paddack is 0-3 with an 8.47 ERA in four career appearances (three starts) against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
