“Max Fried’s your guy!” - Justin Verlander’s brother baffled as Yankees topple ace pitcher in crucial outing vs. Red Sox

The New York Yankees put their best foot forward with Max Fried on the mound for Game of the AL Wild Card series against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.

Fried, who faced off against regular-season strikeout leader Garrett Crochet, shut out the Red Sox over six innings. However, the Yankees ace was taken out of the game in the seventh inning because of an elevated pitch count.

The decision to remove Fried from the mound baffled veteran pitcher Justin Verlander's brother Ben. The MLB analyst made his feelings known on X:

"Max Fried was dominating. Wasn’t getting touched. Yet was taken out of the game because of a pitch count. Hindsight is always 20/20 but I just don’t think it was the smart move. He’s your guy. Let him get out of the inning. Could cost the Yankees their season."

Ben wanted the Yankees ace to finish the seventh inning to save the bullpen. Sure enough, the Yankees conceded two runs in the seventh to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead. Alex Bregman added another run in the top of the ninth to make it 3-1 as the Yankees' bullpen surrendered the advantage after Fried's exit.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone reveals reason behind Max Fried's early exit

While Boone pulled Max Fried out in the seventh inning, Red Sox manager Alex Cora left Garett Crochet on the mound. The Red Sox ace went 7⅔ innings deep, throwing a career-high 117 pitches for 11 strikeouts with zero walks.

Following the 3-1 loss in the series opener, Boone defended his decision to pull Fried in the seventh inning.

"I felt like his command was not as good those final few," Boone said. "He's just making so many big pitches, and his stuff was good. He gave us what we needed and felt really good about the outing he put forth, but I felt pretty convicted. Especially we got the double play, it's like, 'Let's go get one more hitter and be good.'"

The Yankees rallied in the ninth inning with three singles against Aroldis Chapman to load the bases. However, the Red Sox reliever held his nerve to see out the game without conceding a run.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash