Yankees survive late drama as Max Fried’s gem, Ben Rice’s homer help avoid Tigers sweep

DETROIT — All it took was a serving of Fried, Rice to get the Yankees back on track. 

For seven innings Wednesday afternoon, Max Fried put on a master class, showing why the Yankees signed him to an eight-year, $218 million contract this offseason.

The left-hander struck out 11, walked none and scattered just five hits while outdueling his former high school teammate, Jack Flaherty. 

The only problem was that for six of those innings, it looked like it all might go for naught. 

But before it was too late, Ben Rice ended a 16-inning scoring drought by smoking a two-run home run in the top of the seventh that, along with Fried’s gem and some late insurance, snapped a three-game losing streak as the Yankees beat the Tigers 4-3 at Comerica Park. 

“Wow, that was incredible out of [Fried],” said Aaron Judge, who delivered a two-run single in the ninth inning that proved to be the difference. “Especially coming out, we lose the first two games of the series, kind of down, offense isn’t getting much going. For him to come out there and give us some strong innings, some big outs on his end, even when he got a couple guys in scoring position and got into a little trouble, he really buckled down and helped seal it for us. That was really impressive.” 

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Devin Williams threatened to spoiled it all in the bottom of the ninth, entering with a four-run lead and letting in three runs.

Aaron Boone pulled Williams with the tying run on second and two outs for Mark Leiter Jr., who needed two pitches to end it. 

The Yankees (7-5) were in danger of getting swept to finish off this road trip, but Fried played the role of stopper.

His lineup had scored 29 runs in his first two starts, but he had much less margin for error in his third start and delivered just what the Yankees needed. 

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“We lost the first two of this series and I just wanted to make sure I did whatever I could to keep us in the game to be able to hopefully come out with the win,” Fried said. 

So did Rice, who clobbered a 418-foot blast off of lefty reliever Tyler Holton to make it 2-0 with two outs in the seventh.

His third home run of the season, which came off the bat at 108.1 mph, cut through the cold to score the Yankees’ first runs since the eighth inning Monday. 

“It felt huge,” Rice said. “Max was battling for us the whole game, kept us in it in a pitchers’ duel there early. Gave us a chance to come back in the later innings and put some runs on the board. To come through on that was massive.” 

Most of the day was about the showdown between Fried and Flaherty, the two former rotation mates at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles who were starting against each other for the first time.

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Fried had texted with Flaherty briefly earlier in the series and gave him a nod in the outfield Wednesday when both were warming up before the game. But other than that, Fried indicated it was business as usual. 

“We’re both competitive, so we knew we were locked in and had a job to do,” Fried said. “But it was fun.” 

Flaherty, whom the Yankees nearly acquired at the trade deadline last summer before a concern with his physical popped up, tossed 5 ¹/₃ shutout innings while striking out nine and giving up three hits and three walks. 

But Fried was even better, pitching like the ace the Yankees need him to be without Gerrit Cole. 

“That was a dominant performance,” Boone said. “He was the catalyst.” 

Fried stranded a runner on third in the fifth inning by getting a strikeout on a 95 mph fastball, then left another on second in the seventh when he ended his outing with back-to-back strikeouts on a changeup and another 95 mph heater. 

“What I like is he loves the competition,” Boone said. “He relishes that opportunity. When you’re really good, like he is, there’s a reason for that. He likes being in the fire out there, he likes competing. He’s got so many different ways to beat you and it was just a big-time performance there.”