Twelve days ago, Max Fried landed on the injured list.
The initial reaction was that it could be it for him this year, the second time he’d been sidelined with the same bone bruise in his left elbow.
Less than two weeks later, the left-hander was back on the mound for the Yankees in The Bronx.
Fried looked like himself Saturday night, though it wasn’t a long outing in a 9-2 victory that earned them a split of the day-night doubleheader against the Red Sox. He struck out four, walked three and allowed one earned run over 3 ²/₃ innings while throwing 63 pitches.
“I was sharper earlier than late, but nice to get back out there, get your competitive juices going,” he said. “At the end of the day, us being able to win the game was really big.”
Fried allowed a solo homer to Nick Sogard in the third inning but didn’t let Boston do any more damage. The Red Sox did put two runners on in the third with one out, but Fried retired Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu to end the threat. He ended his evening on a high note by striking out Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio.
“I thought, overall, he threw the ball pretty well, gave us enough there at the start,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he was pretty good overall. He kind of featured everything and had a feel for everything, so that was good to see.”
The one concern with Fried’s outing was his four-seam fastball’s velocity was a bit down. On the year, he has averaged 95 mph on that pitch, which on Saturday was at 93.8 mph. His cutter also was down, from 92 to 90.8. Oddly, his sinker was slightly up.
“It’s not something that I’m too worried about,” Fried said. “I feel like I was still able to make some good pitches, keep them off-balance, and I was feeling good.”
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The hope is that Fried is back for the remainder of the season. He said this latest IL stint was the result of one pitch irritating the elbow. He doesn’t expect to miss any more time.
“I feel great,” Fried said. “Very, very confident.”
