Last weekend, when New York Yankees at the head of the East (then 30-19) visited Coors Field to play the historically bad rockies of Colorado (then 8-42), a sweep seemed inevitable.
The reality struck Friday evening when Rhp Tanner Gordon led the Rockies to a surprising 3-2 victory.
The next day, however, Max Fried would write things as he dazzled on 7 sleeves, withdrawing seven and abandoning six strokes that do not translate into a single point. As he said to the media after the match, his fast ball worked and he used it aggressively to close a low offense to the rocks.
Fried was also in the upper defensive form, removing two basic runners at the start.
Fried on Sunday answered a few questions in the Coors Field Visiting Clubhouse to adapt to the Yankee stadium, the increase in the vertical movement of its lead and what it would take to bring it back to the box.
(This transcription has been slightly modified for more clarity.)
Dechet: This is your first season with the Yankees. Everything indicates that you have taken it quite well. What type of adjustment did you have to make for pitching at Yankee Stadium?
Max Fried: Physically, not too much. I feel like I am myself. I do not try to do anything too crazy, realizing that it is the same game, and I just want to be myself and not try to be something else. But with regard to the transition, to be with these guys in this clubhouse made things really easy. They welcomed me, and it was a transparent transition so far.
RD: When you say “be yourself”, what do you mean by that?
MF: Just be the same person and the player I have been in my career. I do not try to do more or try to be more than what I have already done.
RD: So far this season, you seem to use your lead and your curve ball more. Can you talk a bit about this change?
MF: It is not something that, I suppose, premeditated. It’s just a bit of what happened. I have never entered a season or a match saying: “I’m going to throw my curve” or “I’m going to start a certain field more.” It’s just when, when you go out, sometimes you rely on each other.
RD: Your lead shows a significant change in the vertical movement. Have you made adjustments to get it?
MF: Yeah, I made some adjustments when I came, and they seem to work.
RD: Can you talk about it a bit?
MF: It’s just a change of catch. They showed me a grip that was a little better for me, and I just tried to throw it, and he obtained results at the moment.
RD: You have won three gold gloves. We saw part of your defensive work yesterday when you chose two runners. Can you talk a bit about how defense has become part of your game and development in this area?
MF: I grew up in the game position. I played the first goal and in the growing field, and being an athlete, I am just proud of my defense was something that I always really appreciated. And then when I converted by being just a launcher, it was my way of trying to still have an athletics on the ground, and to realize that the fact of appearing your position and to hold runners and things of this nature is a real advantage, in particular to launch, enter deep into the games and try to win. So just keep this accent,
RD: In 2021, you won a silver slugger, which suggests that you are rather good on the other side of the plate.
Seth Lugo told me last year that he had the impression of having an advantage over many younger launchers because of his experience as a striker. Have you had a similar experience?
MF: I would certainly say that it gives you a perspective. When you stand in the box and you are faced with a major league launcher and you see what it looks like this end, it just gives you a perspective on the difficulty of what it really is. So this is the only thing that I miss is to be able to enter the box and see what it looks like to give you this assurance that what you do on the mound is really difficult to do and very difficult to strike.
RD: Do you think there is never a chance that you can knock again. I know that Germán Márquez is very lacking.
MF: Perhaps if there is a certain situation where we burn each guy on the bench and enter many additional sleeves and that something crazy happens, but I do not expect it, but if it ever happens, I will be ready.
RD: You went to high school with Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito. Did you follow these guys?
MF: Yeah, absolutely. We can stay in contact all the time. I am each of their departures. I assure myself when, when they pitch, I check the scoring of the box and send messages and things like that.
RD: How was it, while watching the three of them evolve as you have it?
MF: It’s really cool. You realize that it is rare, and something that few people have somehow, but we try to get the most out of it, or at least support each other. You know, it’s a difficult game, and it’s difficult to do it, so just to provide support to our friends. It is important.
RD: Last of me. What is the best field you have shown so far this season?
MF: Wow. The best field I have launched this season [long pause]. I don’t know if I have only one field, not one that stands out like that like “it was this one.”
RD: Can you think one?
MF: There is one in the past. It was the first two gloves that I had launched, and I had withdrawn Starling Marte.
RD: Can you have me crossed?
MF: I mean it was 2023? I launched it, and it was the first time I called it, and I executed it, and I hit it. And it was like a moment of “that was really good”.
