BOSTON — It was one out away from becoming a piece of Yankees history.
For three straight games, the Yankees pitching staff had held opponents scoreless. Ryan Weathers went first, then Luis Gil, and on Wednesday night at Fenway Park, Max Fried picked up where they left off. Eight immaculate innings. Not a single run allowed.
The Yankees won, 4-1, to claim their fifth consecutive victory. But the story behind the score was something much bigger than a win streak.
A streak that reached back 64 years
Through eight full innings, the Yankees had not surrendered a run in 26 straight frames across three games. The number mattered. To throw three consecutive shutouts, the Yankees would need just three more outs from closer Brent Headrick.
They did not get there. Headrick allowed a run in the bottom of the ninth, snapping the streak at 26 innings and ending the bid for three straight shutouts. The last time the Yankees pulled off that feat was in 1962, during the dynasty-era club that won back-to-back World Series titles.
The Red Sox (9-15) scored their only run in the ninth to avoid the shutout and save a measure of dignity. The Yankees (15-9) took the series win and kept moving.
Fried scraps his windup and finds his rhythm
Max Fried did not have his cleanest start through the first two innings. He walked two batters, both coming out of his traditional windup. That brought the total to 10 walks this season with no one on base, compared to zero walks issued out of the stretch.
The numbers were glaring. Pitching coach Matt Blake noticed. With some encouragement from Blake, Fried made an unusual mid-game adjustment after escaping a two-on, no-out jam in the second. Starting the third inning, he ditched the windup entirely and worked exclusively out of the stretch for the rest of the night.
It was a move Fried said he had made perhaps only once before in his entire career. But the results were immediate and decisive.
He retired 14 consecutive batters to close out his outing, finishing on his 100th pitch by striking out Willson Contreras to end the eighth. Fried scattered three hits and two walks in total and struck out nine, getting better with every inning.
Asked afterward about the mid-game switch, Fried was candid about what drove the decision.
“For whatever reason this year, I’ve walked a ton of guys in the windup and I haven’t walked anyone in the stretch,” Fried said. “When you look at the numbers like that and you sit there and walk two guys early on, knowing that the walks have really hurt me, especially with no one on base, I just said, ‘You know what? You got to suck up your pride and just say whatever’s working, you got to go and do.'”
The pitching staff carrying an injured rotation
The Yankees are doing all of this without Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole, both sidelined on the injured list. Cole, who had Tommy John surgery last March, could return by next month. Rodon’s timeline is less certain.
Despite those absences, the Yankees’ starters have posted a 2.67 ERA through 24 games. Fried’s Wednesday outing was his third scoreless start in six appearances this season.
Giancarlo Stanton has had a front-row seat for every one of those outings. Asked how the rotation’s performance is affecting the rest of the clubhouse, Stanton did not hold back on what it means to play behind a staff pitching like this.
“It’s been incredible,” Stanton said. “They’ve been dominant and really locked in. It’s easier on the offensive side when they’re going like that. They’ll continue to work and push the envelope.”
Manager Aaron Boone has leaned on his starters all week in Boston. With Cam Schlittler set to take the mound Thursday, Boone has made clear what role the rotation plays in everything the Yankees do.
“Obviously starting pitching sets the tone for everything,” Boone said. “To get two really good ones here to start the series and hand the ball off to [Schlittler on Thursday], hopefully have another one. They’re the tone setters.”
McMahon’s defense adds an exclamation point
Fried also had help behind him in the late innings. Ryan McMahon entered the game at third base in the sixth and proceeded to make two plays that had the Fenway crowd shaking its head.
The first was a slick backhand stab on a grounder down the third-base line to end the sixth inning. The second came in the eighth, when McMahon dove to his right and robbed Isiah Kiner-Falefa of a leadoff hit, fully extended and spearing the ball out of the air.
The Yankees’ pitching staff gave up one run in three games. Their infield helped make sure even that felt like a moral victory for the Red Sox.
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