The Yankees got exactly the response they needed Tuesday night, bouncing back from their first loss of the season with a 5-0 win over the Mariners in Seattle. After Monday’s frustrating walk-off defeat, New York handed the ball to Max Fried on normal rest thanks to Sunday’s rare offday, and the ace delivered exactly the kind of outing you hope for coming off a defeat.
The Yankees wasted no time jumping on M’s Opening Day starter Logan Gilbert. With two outs in the top of the first, Cody Bellinger
singled up the middle and came all the way around from first when Ben Rice ripped a double down the right-field line and off the wall.
Giancarlo Stanton kept the rally alive by dropping a lazy fly ball into no man’s land around where Rice’s ball ended up, plating Rice from second (pun fully intended) and giving New York a quick 2-0 lead, already topping their Monday output. The early traffic immediately put Gilbert under pressure, forcing the Mariners’ right-hander to throw 28 pitches in the opening frame.
The Yankees put the leadoff man on in both the third and fourth innings and had chances to create separation, but Aaron Judge and Stanton each grounded into inning-killing double plays that allowed Seattle’s starter to keep the deficit manageable.
That changed in the sixth.
Trent Grisham sparked the inning by bouncing an automatic double over the wall in right. After Gilbert got Judge to chase for a strikeout, Cody Bellinger punched a single up the middle to put runners at the corners and keep the pressure on.
The Yankees then forced the issue. Bellinger broke for second, and a rare throwing error by Platinum Glove defender Cal Raleigh allowed Grisham to score, stretching the lead to 3-0.
A walk to Rice brought Stanton back to the plate, and the Yankees’ designated hitter ripped a double into left field, scoring Bellinger and moving Rice to third. The hit chased Gilbert from the game after 5.2 innings. Stanton has now registered multi-hit games in each of the Yankees’ first five contests of the year — a rarity in franchise history. Fittingly, he ended the night hitting .500 across 20 PA in the season’s first road trip.
The Seattle pitching change did little to slow the Yankees’ momentum.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. immediately greeted Cole Wilcox with a line drive single to right, bringing Rice home to make it 5-0. Jazz then swiped second, giving New York its second stolen base of the inning and putting even more pressure on Seattle before Wilcox finally escaped the jam.
While the offense gave him plenty of support, Fried did not need any more than what the offense gifted him to start the game. He was in complete control from the jump, carving through the Mariners lineup for seven shutout innings. Through six, Seattle managed just one hit while Fried piled up six strikeouts and consistently stayed ahead in counts, even calling for an ABS challenge himself to get a ball-one call overturned in the fourth.
Fried’s biggest challenge came in the seventh. Julio Rodríguez opened the inning with a single, but Fried immediately erased the threat by getting Josh Naylor to bounce into a crisp 6-3 double play. A hit batter and Brendan Donovan single suddenly gave Seattle its best chance of the night, putting two aboard with two outs.
Fried calmly reset, tapped the PitchCom on his belt, and worked Victor Robles into a routine fly ball to Aaron Judge in right to end the inning and slam the door on Seattle’s last real threat. His final line was everything the Yankees could have asked for: seven innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts, and 90 pitches, 60 for strikes.
Through Fried’s first 13.1 innings this season, he has now allowed just five hits, two walks, and zero runs while striking out 10, looking every bit like the ace southpaw the Yankee front office dreamt he would be when he signed.
And maybe the only pitcher capable of slowing down Aaron Judge right now is his own ace. Judge is now 0-for-9 with six strikeouts in Fried’s first two starts, a funny little side note to what has otherwise been total Yankees dominance. New York has now outscored opponents 12-0 in Fried’s two outings.
Brent Headrick followed Fried with a relatively clean eighth inning, allowing a single to Cole Young before blowing a fastball past the Monday night hero Raleigh for a strikeout to end the frame. Tim Hill then took care of the ninth, working a clean inning to officially lock down the Yankees’ 5-0 bounce-back win.
The Yankees now hand Wednesday’s getaway-day finale to Cam Schlittler, who will face George Kirby in another premium pitching matchup. Schlittler was electric to open the year, with eight strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Kirby impressed in his first start striking out six in six innings of one-run ball. Will the Yankees bats get to Kirby and let Cam take the series tomorrow? First pitch is at 4:10pm ET.
