Yankees ace Max Fried dominates Orioles with career-high-tying 13 strikeouts in Thursday's series-opening win, shows playoff readiness

Max Fried, the Yankees' first-year ace, struck out a career-high-tying 13 batters in what was arguably his best start of the 2025 season — Thursday's 7-0 win at the Baltimore Orioles.

Takeaways

1. Wherever the Yankees (86-67) end up in the playoffs, they should feel good about their chances with an ace like Fried (18-5, 2.92 ERA) on the mound. The southpaw found a way in this past Saturday's 5-3 win at the Boston Red Sox, and he made a statement against Baltimore (72-81) for his MLB-leading 18th victory.

   Fried, who surpassed his season-high 11 strikeouts from April 9 at the Detroit Tigers, allowed only three hits and walked just one batter in Thursday's seven-inning start. He threw 59 strikes on 87 pitches, retiring 12 straight at one point.

   With October coming, the Yankees need Fried at his best. He gave a glimpse of what to expect Thursday.

2. While the Yankees only led 3-0 into the seventh inning, where a three-run frame nearly doubled the lead, the bats certainly stayed alive after back-to-back games of 10 runs in the previous days' series-closing wins at the Minnesota Twins. Among them, leadoff batter Paul Goldschmidt's 2-for-5 night — including an RBI single to start the seventh-inning spurt — was a welcome sight for the Yankees as he increased his slash line to .280/.331/.415 through 137 games.
3. Aaron Judge followed Goldschmidt's Jose Caballero-scoring knock with a sacrifice fly to bring Austin Wells home and pad the Yankees' 5-0 lead. Judge was hitless but worked two walks and, as mentioned, added his 104th RBI.

   He is slashing .328/.453/.676 with 48 home runs and making a strong case for the AL MVP while battling Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.

4. The Yankees are three games behind the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays with nine contests left to stack wins and see what happens. Six more games against the Orioles — Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Baltimore before next weekend at Yankee Stadium — are among them.

   Between those, the Yankees have a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox (which begins the six-game homestand, leading into the Orioles set). The Yankees, who hold the first wild card, have won six of their past eight games and have a golden opportunity to gain ground.

Who's the MVP?

Fried, who is up to a single-season career-high 182 strikeouts this year. He is proving to be worth every cent of his offseason deal, especially for a Gerrit Cole-less starting rotation.

Highlights

What's next

The Yankees seek their fourth straight win Thursday at 7:05 p.m. when they continue the four-game series in Baltimore with New York RHP Will Warren (8-7, 4.44 ERA) and Orioles LHP Trevor Rogers (8-2, 1.43 ERA) set to start.

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