BOSTON — Max Fried was brilliant on Wednesday night at Fenway Park. Eight innings. Nine strikeouts. Three hits. No runs.
But ask anyone who watched the final three innings closely, and they will tell you Fried did not do it alone.
Ryan McMahon entered the game in the sixth inning as a defensive substitution. What followed over the next two innings was the kind of work that never shows up in a pitcher’s line but can completely determine whether a gem becomes a win or a hard-luck loss.
Why McMahon’s glove matters more with Fried on the mound
Max Fried is built to induce ground balls. His sinker, his cutter, his approach to the strike zone, all of it is designed to get hitters to beat the ball into the dirt. No starter in baseball generates more ground balls hit to third base.
That is not a coincidence. It is a design feature. And it means that whoever is playing third base when Fried pitches late in a game will face more chances than almost any other third baseman in baseball that night.
The Yankees have known this since they acquired McMahon from Colorado last July. His 66 Defensive Runs Saved and 46 Outs Above Average since 2017 trail only Nolan Arenado and Matt Chapman among all third basemen in that span. He has never won a Gold Glove largely because he spent his best defensive years in the National League West competing directly with two of the greatest defensive third basemen in the game’s recent history.
On Wednesday night, manager Aaron Boone put McMahon in during the sixth inning specifically to protect the lead Fried had built. It was a calculated decision. What happened next made it look like a masterpiece.
Play one: The backhand down the line
With two outs in the sixth and the Yankees leading 4-0, Andruw Monasterio hit a hard ground ball down the third-base line. It was the kind of ball that asks everything of a third baseman. Hard. Down the line. Moving away from the fielder with every step.
McMahon moved to his left, backhanded the ball on the run as he tracked into foul territory, and fired a sidearm strike to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Out. Inning over.
Max Fried had spent years as a National League rival watching McMahon make plays like that with the Colorado Rockies. He knew exactly what he had just seen. Describing the play afterward, Fried spoke from that experience.
“I’ve seen that play way too many times with him running into the foul ground and throwing the ball in the money,” Fried said.
Play two: The diving stop that took away a double
If the sixth-inning play was Manny Machado-level defense, what McMahon did in the eighth inning made the first one look routine by comparison.
Leading off the eighth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa ripped a hard liner down the third-base line. The ball was destined for the left-field corner. Extra bases. A runner on second with nobody out in the eighth. A crack in a gem that had been flawless.
McMahon took one step to his right, left his feet, extended his body fully horizontal, and speared the ball out of the air while sprawled across the infield dirt. The play was over before most people in the park had processed what they were watching.
Aaron Boone had seen it from the dugout. Asked after the game to describe what his third baseman had just done across two innings, Boone landed on a word that matched the moment perfectly.
“Wow,” Boone said. “I mean, those are two tremendous plays.”
After the diving catch, Fried struck out Ceddanne Rafaela and Willson Contreras back-to-back to close out the eighth inning. He finished with nine strikeouts on 100 pitches. The Yankees won, 4-1.
A career built on this kind of work
McMahon was acquired by the Yankees in July 2025 as the final piece of an infield overhaul. The Yankees needed steadiness on their left side, and McMahon provided it immediately. He made a famous catch falling into the Red Sox dugout during Game 3 of the Wild Card Series that October, a play that earned him a permanent spot in Yankees postseason lore.
He came back in 2026 with more of the same. His range, his arm, and his hands are the kind of tools that allow a ground-ball pitcher to work deeper into games with less anxiety. For Fried, having McMahon behind him is not just a luxury. On nights like Wednesday, it is what makes a gem possible.
The Yankees improved to 15-9 with the win. Fried lowered his career ERA against the Red Sox to 1.10 across 32 and two-thirds innings in pinstripes. McMahon did not play a single inning in the field before the sixth.
He needed exactly two chances. He made both of them count.
What do you think about McMahon’s defense?
