Max Fried bounces back as Yankees take rubber match from Guardians

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Jun 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK —Fresh off his worst start as a Yankee, Max Fried returned to ace-like form in the Yankees’ 4-0, rubber-match win over the Guardians on Thursday.

The southpaw crumbled late in his last outing, which came in the Yankees’ first rematch against the Dodgers since the World Series, as he allowed six earned runs over five innings in an 8-5 loss. But Aaron Boone hardly seemed concerned about the $218 million man after that start and before Thursday’s contest.

“Even for the best of the best, you’re gonna have a hiccup along the way,” the manager said. “His makeup is off the charts.”

Fried, visibly bothered after his L.A. homecoming, responded with six scoreless innings against the Guardians. Throwing a season-high 103 pitches, he permitted just one hit as he walked two and struck out seven.

Thursday marked the sixth time this season Fried has recorded at least seven strikeouts. He used six different pitches to induce 17 whiffs.

The early-season Cy Young candidate and All-Star hopeful now has a 1.78 ERA 13 starts into his Yankees career.

Fried’s stellar evening didn’t get off to the best start, as he needed 28 pitches to get through a bumpy first inning that also included a Ben Rice error on a pickoff throw from the pitcher. However, Fried stranded runners on second and third before cruising through the rest of the game.

While Fried rebounded against the Yankees’ 2024 ALCS opponent, Cody Bellinger also made his presence felt.

The outfielder was busy in the fourth inning, first robbing David Fry of extra bases at the right field wall after taking an iffy path to a leaping catch. Then Bellinger clubbed a two-run homer off Slade Cecconi following a double from Aaron Judge.

Bellinger now has nine long balls in his first season with the Yankees.

Bellinger added an RBI single in the seventh, as did Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The Yankees had other opportunities to score, particularly in the fifth frame. However, they failed to take advantage of a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation after Rice hit into a double play and Bellinger flew out to center. Bellinger flew out following the first of two intentional walks to Judge, who is now hitting .392.

The Guardians blew a golden opportunity of their own in the seventh, as they had the bases juiced with one out. But Tim Hill got Bo Naylor to strike out and Jhonkensy Noel to fly out after inheriting the jam.

With the Guardians defeated, the first-place Yankees will look for another series win when they play Boston for the first time this season over the weekend.

Will Warren, Ryan Yarbrough and Carlos Rodón are scheduled to start during the AL East showdown. Walker Buehler, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Dobbins are lined up for the Red Sox.

Boston has disappointed so far this season following a busy winter, but Boone still believes Red Sox manager Alex Cora is running a “talented” team.

“We feel like a really good, hungry club is going to be coming in here,” Boone said of the fourth-place rival. “It hasn’t started, certainly, how they’ve wanted it to, but I feel like they’re very dangerous.”