Yankees Manager Has Perfect Comparison for Max Fried

If someone were to mention that New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried tied for the most runs allowed in any of his outings so far this year in the team's Subway Series finale against the New York Mets, you'd naturally assume he put up a dud.

Given how utterly dominant the left-hander has been since donning the pinstripes, however, that simply wasn't the case.

Taking the mound under the bright lights for Sunday Night Baseball at Yankee Stadium, Fried twirled yet another gem against his old friends from Queens.

Over six innings and 102 pitches, he held the Mets to two runs on three hits and two walks while striking out eight batters. Fried's FIP of 1.42 and xFIP of 2.15 were his lowest in any start since twirling a seven-frame shutout vs. the Detroit Tigers on April 9.

“He’s like a race car out there,” manager Aaron Boone said, via MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. “He’s just hard to get a beat on, because he’s just changing speeds and getting so much movement quality on all his pitches.”

The velocity on all five of Fried's pitches registered above their season averages, and it comes as no surprise that he was a little more juiced up in an atmosphere as electric as the one the Bronx faithful provided.

“It was definitely exciting. It was intense,” Fried said after the game, via video from SNY. “Series that feel like playoff series are always good, especially early in the year. It preps you for the kind of baseball you want to play towards the end.”

Fried was plenty familiar with the Mets and their lineup coming into the night, having began his career with their NL East rivals in the Atlanta Braves.

Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto, who became accustomed to the veteran southpaw while playing for the Washington Nationals, had previously racked up a combined 170 at-bats against Fried. Those six players, however, logged just two hits and two walks against him on the night.

Soto's 0-for-4 night, which included two strikeouts while facing Fried, was particularly gratifying considering the Yankees surely wouldn't have signed their newly minted ace to an eight-year, $218 million contract this past offseason had the former returned instead of agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million mega deal with the Mets.

For his career, Fried is now 9-5 with a 2.50 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 25 games and 115 innings against the blue and orange.

With Gerrit Cole out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Fried has fronted the Yankees' rotation without skipping a beat. The two-time All-Star currently owns the lowest ERA among all qualified pitchers this year at 1.29, and he's proved the organization right by going above and beyond to bring him into the fold.

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