Yankees' Max Fried matches career high with 13 Ks in series-opening win over Orioles

BALTIMORE — A clearly bewildered Max Fried stood in the visitor’s clubhouse inside Busch Stadium after yet another frustrating outing.

“I definitely have to change something and change it up quick,” the soft-spoken Fried said on Aug. 16 after allowing a season-high seven runs by the Cardinals, which ran his ERA over an eight-start stretch to 6.80.

It seems safe to say Fried has done just that.

The lefthander’s turnaround began one start later, with six scoreless innings Aug. 22 against the Red Sox, and continued Thursday night as he turned in his best outing as a Yankee.

In control from the first batter he faced until the last, Fried matched his career high with 13 strikeouts in seven innings as the Yankees won their third straight with a 7-0 victory over the Orioles in front of 25,253 at Camden Yards.

“Best changeup he’s probably had all year,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Stuff was really good. Just really in control of the game. Took a lead and obviously kind of ran with it.”

Fried, who is 5-0 with a 1.60 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in his last six starts since that outing against the Cardinals, allowed three hits and one walk in an 87-pitch outing that had the Orioles (72-81) flailing and failing throughout.

Fried (18-5, 2.92 ERA), who features a seven-pitch mix — cutter, sinker, curveball, four-seam fastball, sweeper, changeup and slider — set a career high for victories in his career-high 31st start and became the first in MLB to earn 18 victories.

First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who faced Fried plenty in the National League, where both spent the majority of their careers, called playing behind him “fun,” especially on nights like Thursday.

“Faced him a lot where he’s doing that to us,” Goldschmidt said with a smile. “He made our job easy.”

What’s it like as a hitter facing Fried when he’s on?

“Number one, you don’t know what you’re going to get. He’s got so many pitches,” Goldschmidt said. “He’s a smart pitcher out there, he mixes it up, doesn’t fall into patterns and just executes. That’s what he was doing tonight.”

Said Fried, “Physically, I feel like I did toward the beginning of the year. Just changing speeds, trying to get deep into games and trying to win games. It was really big the offense coming out early, scoring some runs and giving us some breathing room.”

The Yankees (86-67), who have won 17 of their last 24 games and 24 of their last 35 to climb 19 games over .500 for the first time this season, pulled within three games of the AL East-leading Blue Jays, who lost earlier in the day to the Rays. They are two games ahead of the Astros and Mariners — who are tied for the AL West lead and second wild card — and three games ahead of the Red Sox.

After totaling 20 runs and 28 hits the final two games of the series in Minneapolis, the Yankees had nine hits Thursday. Goldschmidt and Austin Wells each had two hits and an RBI. Amed Rosario and Giancarlo Stanton each had a two-run double.

Rosario, slashing .318/.345/.514 against lefty pitching this season, put the Yankees on the board in the first with a two-out, two-run double off lefthander Cade Povich, ripping a 1-and-1 changeup into the leftfield corner. It drove in Goldschmidt, who led off with a single, and Cody Bellinger, who walked with one out.

“They key for me was looking for a specific pitch,” Rosario said through his interpreter. “I think I was looking for something in, he executed that pitch and I was ready for it.”

Anthony Volpe led off the fifth with a double, stole third and scored on Wells’ single.

The Yankees scored four in the seventh against righty Chayce McDermott, getting an RBI single from Goldschmidt, a sacrifice fly from Aaron Judge and a two-run double from Stanton that made it 7-0.

Fried, who at one point retired 12 straight, ran his strikeout total to eight in the fifth, striking out two of three batters. He struck out two in the sixth — stranding a pair of runners — and two more in the seventh, the last of those to tie his career high (established June 4, 2024, in Boston while with Atlanta).

“I had no idea how many strikeouts I had,” Fried said. “I was out there just pitching. I didn’t realize until I came out of the game.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.