Yankees.com: Fried roughed up as Yanks drop opener of showdown series vs. Dodgers

From Bryan Hoch:

The buses pulled into the Dodger Stadium parking lot early on Friday, tracing the route they hoped to follow last autumn. Back then, the Yankees had everything riding on their return to Southern California, even displaying a flight itinerary on the clubhouse televisions at Yankee Stadium. A disastrous fifth inning in World Series Game 5 left their jet wheels on the tarmac.

Get tickets for June 6: Yogi Berra U.S. Navy Bobblehead Giveaway
Nothing that happens in this late May rematch of the Fall Classic will rewrite that ending — only another October showdown can begin to do that. But to borrow a phrase from Yogi Berra, this contest served up a hearty helping of “déjà vu all over again” — an early advantage lost to a mid-game momentum shift and an 8-5 loss at Chavez Ravine.

I’ll give Boone this much. Max Fried sucked so much ass in this game that it wasn’t even like Boone could have managed much around things. The only realistic thing he could have done was to bring in Tim Hill against Freddy Freeman with two men on and no outs in the sixth inning, and, well, would that even have been a SMART move? No, he had to stick with Fried against the lefty Freeman, Fried just continued to suck ass, giving up a double that basically gave the game away, as it was suddenly a 5-4 game with runners on second and third and no outs, so the odds were EXTREMELY high that the Dodgers would score the go-ahead run, which they did.

Now, we could certainly question Boone on OTHER decisions, like deciding to punt the game in the seventh inning with a 6-5 deficit by using Yerry De los Santos, which I don’t DISlike, but he’s the bottom of the bullpen right now, and BEFORE the game he was only slightly above bottom of the bullpen (he was probably JUST ahead of Brent Headrick before the game started, and he HAS to be be below Headrick now).

Honestly, while De los Santos was terrible, it wasn’t like most of the Yankee relievers were awful, they just came into a game that was fucked due to Fried.

Yes, the Yankees fell asleep at the wheel once they were up 5-2, and somehow allowed Tony Gonsolin to pitch SIX fucking innings with a dead tired Dodgers bullpen, but the main reason they lost was Fried. Hopefully this is just a rare off day for Fried.

The featured image is the worst sign that this wasn’t going to be the Yankees’ night, when Fried’s FIRST PITCH was absolutely DESTROYED by Ohtani for the first of TWO home runs by the soon-to-be four-time MVP (joining only Barry Bonds with that particular honor).