Pitching was mostly the story of this game in both good and bad ways.

To start things off for the Yankees, Fried was everything you could’ve asked for. He went seven scoreless innings, scattering five hits, but issuing no walks and striking out 11, tied for the second-most K’s in a game in his career. The Yankees also needed pretty much all of that outing, as they didn’t get much going against Tigers starter Jack Flaherty. While he only went 5.1 innings, the 2024 World Series foe fanned nine Yankees, allowing just three hits and three walks.

The Yankees’ offense eventually managed to pick up a couple runs off the Tigers’ bullpen, as they took a lead going into the late innings. However once there, another sub-standard outing from closer Devin Williams gave Detroit new life. Eventually, the Yankees managed to finish things off and avoided a sweep with a 4-3 win, but the journey there was an interesting one.

Coming into the game, the main story was around starting pitchers Fried and Flaherty, and the fact that they had been teammates at Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. Throughout much of the game, that was all there there was to discuss too, as both pitchers cruised through the first couple innings.

Both teams scattered a couple hits, but it wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth until a spot truly felt dangerous. There, aided by a Jasson Domínguez misplay on a carom, Zach McKinstry got a ball into the left field corner for a triple, just ahead of the lineup heading back to the top of the order for Detroit. However, Fried bounced back with a strikeout to end that threat.

Then it was the Yankees’ turn to strand runners in scoring position. A leadoff walk from Aaron Judge and a one-out double from Paul Goldschmidt set the Yankees up, and also knocked Flaherty out of the game. However, Judge then got caught in no-man’s land when Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded one right back to reliever Tyler Holton, who then struck out Anthony Volpe to escape the inning.

The Yankees then finally broke the deadlock in the next inning. Holton stayed in and got two quick outs to start the top of the seventh, but then Oswaldo Cabrera kept the inning alive with a single. That brought up Ben Rice, who continued his nice start to the season by crushing a pitch to right-center. It just cleared the top part of the double wall in that part, going over for a two-run home run.

Fried had continued rolling along and came back out for the seventh inning. The frame started in inauspicious fashion with Dillon Dingler leading it off with a double. Fried then showed exactly why the Yankees signed him, though. He got Colt Keith to fly out and then recorded strikeouts Nos. 10 and 11 on the day to get out of the inning and stay scoreless on the day.

That would be the end of Fried’s very impressive outing. Gerrit Cole’s absence due to Tommy John surgery has left this rotation without an ace, but the former Atlanta southpaw appears well-equipped to take over the role. This was exactly the kind of performance the rotation needed after some spotty work from Carlos Rodón and Carlos Carrasco earlier in the series.

In the ninth, The Tigers gave the Yankees quite a bit of help for some insurance runs. Thanks to two hit-by-pitches, two separate dropped foul pop ups by Detroit catcher Dingler, and another error, the Yankees were able to load the bases for Judge. The Yankee captain took advantage and punched through a single to score two runs.

Luke Weaver had delivered a pretty smooth eighth inning to set things up for Devin Williams in a likely save situation at 2-0. The Yankees still called upon Williams with a four-run lead, but the new closer nearly gave it all away regardless, continuing his shaky opening month in pinstripes.

After walking the leadoff hitter, Williams rallied for two strikeouts. However, a Javier Báez single and a walk to Trey Sweeney kept the inning alive. A wild pitch plated a run and moved the runners up before McKinstry dropped in a single. Two runs scored and an ill-advised throw home from Judge allowed McKinstry to move into scoring position as the tying run.

Suddenly, the Yankees had to go back to the bullpen with Williams up to 33 pitches and not inspiring confidence. In came Mark Leiter Jr., who has looked better in his last two outings but is still not far removed from his Eugenio Suárez-aided disaster against the Diamondbacks. It only took two pitches from Leiter to bring this one to a positive end, as Justyn-Henry Malloy popped one up to Jazz Chisholm Jr. in shallow center. Nonetheless, the fact that the Yankees came so close to squandering a four-run lead in the ninth is disconcerting to say the least.

Having wrapped up this cold series in Detroit, the Yankees will get Thursday off before returning home to take on the Giants. Marcus Stroman is set to get the start in Friday night’s series opener against former AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray at 7:05 pm ET.

Box Score