Max Fried is now the de facto ace of the Yankees starting rotation with the injury to Gerrit Cole. The plan was for Fried after he signed a $218 million, 8-year, free agent contract with the New York Yankees, to be the No. 2. Fried and his high school teammate, Jack Flaherty, were both outstanding.
The Yankees won 4-3. Neither team scored until the starters were out of the game. The Yankees are counting on Fried to stop these losing streaks, and he did. This was the last game of a three-game series for the Yankees, and a get-away day. Do you think teams are less likely to play well on getaway days?
Lineups For the Game
In freezing Detroit, the Tigers had Justyn-Henry Malloy batting first and acting as the designated hitter again. Andy Ibanez played right field and batted second. Kerry Carpenter came in to pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning and came into the game playing right field. Zach McKinstry moved to third base. Riley Greene batted third and played left field. Spencer Torkelson played first base and batted fourth.
Dillon Dingler was the catcher and batted fifth. Colt Keith was the shortstop batting sixth. Javier Baez was the shortstop and batted seventh. Ryan Kreidler was the center fielder and batted eighth. McKinstry was the center fielder batting and batted ninth.
For the Yankees, it was a different day with a different lineup in the frigid conditions. Here is the lineup the Yankees put together to support Fried. Ben Rice led off and was the designated hitter. Aaron Judge batted second and was the right fielder. Cody Bellinger was back playing center field and batting third. Paul Goldschmidt was the first baseman batting fourth. Jazz Chisholm Jr. batted fifth and was the second baseman.
Anthony Volpe batted sixth and played shortstop. Jasson Dominguez played left field and batted seventh. Trent Grisham came in for him and played center field in the eighth inning and Bellinger moved over to left field. J.C. Escarra was the catcher and batted eighth. Oswaldo Cabrera played third base and batted ninth.
Scoring Summary: Yanks Against the Tigers
Rice hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning. The Yankees took a 2-0 lead. They needed that home run. Judge singled in the ninth inning scoring two runs as the Yankees extended their lead to 4-0. The Tigers scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning on a Devin Williams wild pitch that made the score 4-1. Then McKinstry drove in two runs with a single and the Tigers cut the Yankees lead to 4-3. Mark Leiter Jr. replaced Williams. He got the final out.
Notes From the Game
Today Carlos Rodon became a 10-year player. That is significant because Rodon now gets a pension. Among other things, this means Rodon has been good enough to play in the majors for 10 years. The Tigers had not, until today, won their first six games at home since 1911.
The Tigers have 13 first-inning runs, tied for the most in the major leagues. Yankees Catcher Austin Wells got today off. With the off day tomorrow, Wells gets two days off.
Tigers Starting Pitcher Jack Flaherty was a high school teammate with Fried. Also on that team was Lucas Giolito the pitching coach for the Tigers Chris Fetter was the pitching coach at Harvard-Westlake.
The last time, before today, the Yankees failed to hit a home run in four consecutive games was in 2020. The Torpedo Bats do not work in the cold. The Yankees are a team built on home runs. It is how they score. The strikeouts really piled up. Combined Fried and Flaherty struck out 9. The Tigers started playing baseball in 1901 and the Yankees started playing baseball in 1903.
Conclusion
Fried pitched very well, and the Yankees used their formula to win this game. They pitched Luke Weaver in the eighth inning and Williams in the ninth inning. The Yankees needed to win this game. They pay Fried to stop losing streaks and that is exactly what he did. Unfortunately, he cannot hit.
