Fried's 13-strikeout gem lifts Yankees past Orioles 7-0
Left-hander ties season high with 13 strikeouts over seven innings as New York strengthens playoff position in Baltimore
Max Fried struck out 13, tying a career high, and pitched seven scoreless innings to lift the New York Yankees to a 7-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. The left-hander generated a season-best 28 swings and misses, including eight whiffs on his changeup, as New York cruised.
The Yankees jumped ahead early. In the first, Paul Goldschmidt singled and Cody Bellinger drew an eight-pitch walk. Amed Rosario lined a two-run double into the left-field corner to make it 2-0. Goldschmidt led off the inning with a hustle double, stole third, and later scored on Austin Wells' single to push the lead to 3-0. Anthony Volpe's legs produced another run in the fifth.
The Yankees broke it open in the seventh, scoring four times off reliever Chayce McDermott. Goldschmidt delivered an RBI single, Aaron Judge added a sacrifice fly, and Giancarlo Stanton lined a two-run double down the left-field line to make it 7-0. Paul Blackburn worked two hitless innings to finish the game and give the high-leverage relievers a night off.
Fried faced his only real trouble in the sixth when two Orioles singles put runners on the corners with two outs, but he struck out Tyler O'Neill on a 99-mph fastball to end the threat.
The win leaves New York at 86-67, trimming the Blue Jays to within a game of the division lead with nine games left. The Yankees also hold the top AL wild-card position by 1.5 games over the Mariners and Astros and three games ahead of the Red Sox.
The trip this week has tested the Yankees, who started the stretch with a late-night flight from Boston to Minneapolis and then were swept by the Twins on Monday before bouncing back with Fried's gem. His late-season resurgence, posting a 1.60 ERA over his last six starts, sets him up as the likely Game 1 starter in October if the rotation holds.
The Orioles, who have spent most of the season in last place in the AL East, had scraped back into better form by winning 12 of 17 entering Thursday, but could not slow Fried on this night.
