Yankees southpaw's excellent outing could be sign of big season in the Bronx

Avoiding their fourth straight loss, the Yankees bounced back in Detroit on Wednesday, defeating the Tigers by a score of 4-3. It was a pitching dual throughout the first six innings as newly acquired starter Max Fried battled against his high school teammate Jack Flaherty. 

Wednesday's ballgame marked Fried's best start in pinstripes out of his first three. Against Detroit, Fried threw seven scoreless innings, striking out 11 while only allowing five hits. 

Fried's outing on Wednesday offered many positive signs for the rest of the season. 

First and most importantly, Fried did not walk a single batter, something that was an issue for Yankees pitchers in the first two games of the series (10 total walks in two games). With only three walks on the season, Fried's 1.6 BB/9 ratio is the lowest of his career. His current 7.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the highest of his career since 2022 when he finished second in the NL Cy Young voting behind Sandy Alcantara.

Secondly, his strikeouts were timely. His three biggest strikeouts came in the fifth and seventh innings. After surrendering a triple with two outs, Fried struck out the leadoff batter to escape a jam in the fifth. In the seventh, Fried allowed a lead-off double. The next batter flew out before he K'd back-to-back batters, ending his excellent afternoon. 

In each of his outings, the swing-and-miss pitch has become more prevalent. In his Yankees debut, batters only swung and missed nine times and as a result, six runs were scored (only two earned). 

His dominant outing on Wednesday consisted of 15 swing-and-miss pitches, bringing his season total to 35 (14th in the MLB). Despite the rough first outing, Fried currently has the highest whiff percentage of his career at 27.1% through his first three games.

Lastly, Fried did an excellent job Wednesday of keeping runners out of scoring position. Only two batters reached second base and both were via extra-base hits. The Tigers weren't able to generate any offensive momentum since they were being held off the base paths. 

In his time in Atlanta, Fried was consistently near the top of the league in terms of WHIP. His career 1.165 WHIP ranks eighth all-time among Braves pitchers, ahead of names like Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Historically, Fried has been great at keeping runners off the bases. 

The combination of low walks, high swings and misses and keeping runners out of scoring position is a recipe for a great season. That combination is how Fried has been pitching this season through three games. 

If he can go out and continue to pitch the way he did Wednesday, Yankees fans can expect to see another CY Young-caliber season from Fried. 

Fried is expected to take the mound again next Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals, which may prove to be his toughest outing of the young season so far.