BRONX, NY – Max Fried was in complete control on Friday night, dominating on the mound while Paul Goldschmidt provided the offensive spark with a three-run homer as the Yankees shut out the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-0, at Yankee Stadium.
Fried delivered another stellar performance, hurling seven scoreless innings and allowing only one hit and two walks while striking out five. The left-hander hasn’t surrendered an earned run since April 15, lowering his ERA to an American League-best 1.01 across seven starts.
“He’s just so versatile out there, and it continues to show up for us,” Yankees skipper Aaron Boone said of Fried’s consistency.
Goldschmidt added the offensive punch with his third home run of the year — and second in as many games — blasting a three-run shot to right field that proved to be the difference. When asked about his recent power surge, Goldschmidt quipped, “I hope so.”
Team captain Aaron Judge continued his torrid start to the season, collecting two more hits on the night — a double and a triple — while scoring a run. Judge, who became the first American League player ever to reach 50 hits before May 1, now leads the league with 16 multi-hit games, and his stats are eye-popping: a .430 batting average and a 1.298 OPS.
Fried proved once again that it’s dangerous to reach first base when he’s pitching. After issuing a one-out walk to Jose Caballero in the second, the crafty lefty promptly picked him off before striking out Kameron Misner on three pitches.
Judge came close to breaking a scoreless deadlock in the third inning, rocketing a 108.5 mph liner off the center field wall for his second triple of the season. The ball bounced hard off the padded wall, allowing him to cruise into third.
The Yankees finally broke through in the fifth. Jorbit Vivas, making his big-league debut in place of the injured Jazz Chisholm Jr., led off with a walk and drew another later in the game. Judge followed with a double down the left field line to put two runners in scoring position.
Tampa Bay turned to its bullpen, bringing in left-hander Mason Montgomery. After a strikeout by Ben Rice, Goldschmidt crushed Montgomery’s second pitch over the short porch in right, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
That homer continued Goldschmidt’s dominance against left-handed pitching. Through 30 at-bats against southpaws, he’s raking with a .600 average and an absurd 1.724 OPS.
In the eighth, Devin Williams took the mound in a lower-pressure situation, retiring the Rays in order and finishing the frame with a blazing fastball past Danny Jansen for a strikeout. Boone praised the reliever’s performance, saying, “The guy’s great, and that didn’t go away because he had a couple of bad outings in a new environment.”
Luke Weaver closed out the game in the ninth, setting down the side with two punchouts to secure the win.
With the victory, the Yankees improved to 19-13 and will look to keep the momentum rolling in the second game of their three-game series against the Rays on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. ET.
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