Yankees vs. Tigers Game 3 a matchup between two schoolmates

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When Max Fried toes the rubber opposite Jack Flaherty at Comerica Park on Wednesday, the Yankees-Tigers matchup transforms into something far more personal. It is the first-ever major league duel between two pitchers who once dominated together on the sun-drenched fields of a Los Angeles high school powerhouse.

For the first time since their Harvard-Westlake School days, Yankees’ Fried and Tigers’ Flaherty will share a major league field as opposing starters. Some 2,300 miles west, their alma mater’s community will gather to witness this rare convergence of paths that began on the same campus but diverged through professional baseball.

“We’ll have a lot of competitive juices going, for sure,” the Yankees ace said Tuesday. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be a little friendly competition, but at the end of the day, it’s the same thing.”

From school stars to MLB standouts

Fried, now anchoring the Yankees’ 2025 rotation, and Flaherty, who returned to Detroit after his stint with the Dodgers last season, formed part of an extraordinary Harvard-Westlake pitching rotation that also featured Lucas Giolito, currently with the Boston Red Sox.

The trio constitutes perhaps the most talent-rich high school staff baseball has ever witnessed. All three were selected in the first round: Fried (7th overall, Padres, 2012), Giolito (16th, Nationals, 2012), and Flaherty (34th, Cardinals, 2014). Each signed seven-figure bonuses and eventually became an Opening Day starter at baseball’s highest level.

“Jack’s probably one of the best high school pitchers that I had ever seen,” Yankees’ Fried recalled.

Despite their collective brilliance, the Wolverines fell short of capturing a California state championship during their overlap season. Nevertheless, the statistical improbability of their shared journey remains staggering. Columbia University statistics professor James E. Corter estimates the odds of a single high school team producing three future MLB Opening Day starters at approximately one in 100,000.

“We’ve been working together for a long time, pumping each other up. It’s pretty weird and wild,” Giolito said of the trio. “I don’t think that’s ever happened before in any professional sport where you’ve got three guys from the same high school all competing on the big stage.”

Friendship transcends competition

While their careers have followed separate trajectories — Fried claiming a World Series title and Gold Glove with Atlanta before joining New York, and Flaherty emerging as a young ace in St. Louis before landing in Detroit — their friendship has endured.

“He came out when I was in the World Series [with Atlanta in 2021],” Fried said. “He flew out and watched my start, so I was able to go and support him as well.”

That mutual support continued last October when Fried watched from the Dodger Stadium stands as Flaherty started Game 1 of the 2024 World Series — a series that culminated with Los Angeles defeating Fried’s current Yankees in five games.

Though Fried minimizes the competitive undertones, Wednesday’s matchup undeniably carries special significance for both hurlers.

“Throughout our careers, we’ve been super supportive of each other,” Fried said. “Just never lined up against each other on the same day, so there will be a lot of competitive juices. But at the end of the day, I’m going to go out there and do what I can to try to win the game, and he’s going to do the same.”

Campus legacy lives on

At Harvard-Westlake, Wednesday’s game represents a milestone worthy of celebration. Athletic director and former baseball coach Matt LaCour remembers the luxury of managing such extraordinary talent.

“The most fun was getting to go to bed the night before and knowing that I had somebody really good going to the mound the next day,” LaCour said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of sleepless nights during that period of our program’s history.”

Fried arrived at Harvard-Westlake for his senior year after Montclair Prep disbanded its baseball program. Giolito, a flame-throwing senior, was tracking as a potential first-overall pick before an elbow injury necessitated Tommy John surgery. Flaherty, then an underclassman, was still transitioning from infield to pitching.

“We definitely knew that Lucas and Max were going to start on Opening Day together at some point,” Flaherty said in a previous interview. “I think I was the third one that was kind of added to that.”

They honed their craft together and shared professional aspirations. Now, those teenage dreams have materialized on baseball’s grandest stage.

Professional rivals, lifelong connections

Few familiar faces are expected in the Detroit crowd beyond the pitchers’ shared representative, Ryan Hamill. Yankees’ Fried mentioned he hasn’t exchanged pre-game banter with Flaherty, though he did joke about Detroit’s spring chill.

“Outside of that, we’re both competitive,” Fried said. “We know that he’s gonna go out there and try to do whatever he can to win for his club. I’m gonna do that for mine.”

For the New York Yankees, Fried’s arrival has provided critical stability amid mounting pitching concerns. With Gerrit Cole sidelined for the season and Luis Gil out indefinitely, Fried has stepped forward not just with performance but with a veteran presence.

Flaherty, meanwhile, seeks consistency after uneven periods in St. Louis and Los Angeles. The Tigers are banking on his untapped potential, hoping he rediscovers the dominance that once made him feared throughout the National League.

Baseball history in the making

The Fried-Flaherty confrontation transcends ordinary competition — it celebrates resilience, shared beginnings, and friendship that has withstood professional separation.

“That was the kind of stuff we were talking about back when you were 15, 16, 17 years old,” Giolito once said. “We’re going to be in the big leagues. We’re going to be starting games.”

Now they are. And for one spring afternoon, their remarkable parallel journeys intersect again.

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