From Bryan Hoch:
The most encouraging development for the Yankees on Friday night transpired on the mound, where Max Fried shook off an unwelcome squirrel visit and snapped out of his slide to resemble the ace who dominated early in the season.
The left-hander spun six sharp innings in what he called “a good outing to get back on track,” but the Bombers’ cold bats wasted the effort. Brayan Bello limited New York to three hits over seven scoreless frames and the Yankees fell to Boston, 1-0.
“They’re a good team,” Fried said. “They’ve been playing some good baseball. When it comes to Red Sox-Yankees, everyone wants to bring out their best. Everyone’s really just grinding to get a win.”
Obviously, the Yankee hitters are fucking pathetic losers (except for the ones who just had bad games. I can’t get mad at Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and even Jasson Dominguez), and since there is a lefthanded starter on Saturday who will dominate them, we at least don’t have to watch Jazz Chisholm and Ryan McMahon shit up the joint for ONE day. Then, on Sunday, if there is any justice in this world, Anthony Volpe will sit, so we don’t have to watch that fucking loser. They don’t HAVE to start Anthony Volpe. Again, Jose Caballero is under team control for MORE YEARS than Volpe! They got Caballero for Everson fucking Pereira. That’s a fucking STEAL for a guy who is going to be under team control for FOUR MORE YEARS. Why aren’t they CELEBRATING that by just fucking USING Caballero?! Fucking VOLPE can be the pinch runner at the end of the game.
In any event, as pathetic of a loss as this was, and as much as the Yankees are losers, and any reliever who comes into the game automatically sucks no matter how well they have pitched in other games, the big thing for me was that Max Fried looks like he might have finally adjusted to his new post-blisters grip. Fried was still very frustrating by throwing WAY too many pitches, but he was obviously also controlled the game for the most part, and probably should have went into the seventh inning.
If Fried pitches like this going forward, then that’s huge.
Featured image is Connor Wong celebrating after he won the game with a double in the seventh inning. Connor Wong sucks, so of course he had a game-winning double.
Man, that is one harsh article in the Times (on Volpe).
Accurate, but harsh.
On Boone also.
Fried was hitting 97 and 98 last night. That has to be a speed gun issue.
And neither team could score last night off of any pitcher, so I’m going to reserve judgment on Fried’s apparent resurrection for another game (as if anything depended on our conclusions 😉 ).
But in the long run, for next year, I’m not worried about Fried. Fried’s a stud. What worries me is the coaching staff’s ability to transform a finger blister the apocalypse.
Historically, when he gets blisters, he goes on the IL to deal with them. The Yankees didn’t want to do that, because they had no starting pitching depth, so he pitched through the blisters, and developed a new grip to avoid the blisters. He then sucked while adjusting to it. Hopefully he HAS fully adjusted to it. When Cole finally adjusted to HIS new grip back in 2021, he was back to being his normal self.
Whatever
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
A Judge (R) DH
C Bellinger (L) LF
G Stanton (R) RF
A Rosario (R) 3B
T Grisham (L) CF
A Volpe (R) SS
J Caballero (R) 2B
A Wells (L) C
It’s not as bad as some lineups, but while Gianni is hot, and Judge is human, how about 1. Judge, and 2. Stanton?
PGold is the right guy to lead off against LHPs.Hes got a 473 OBP against LHPs
Boone defended one of his decisions last night by saying Whitlock had reverse splits. He doesn’t. He lied or just made it up.
88 players with at least 1500 ABs since the start of 2023, let’s see how Volpe ranks
https://x.com/elprez_epm/status/1959286799555014980?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg