TAMPA – At the end of his first spring game on Tuesday, Max Fried was happy that he had reached his 56th strikeout total, with the added bonus of keeping Panama off the board.
It wouldn’t always look good, as the Yankees lefty scattered three walks and one soft hit in three shutout innings in an 11-1 win at Steinbrenner Field.
“It’s really rusty, it’s not consistent at all,” Fried said. But hit the volume, the limit, the volume that we needed [batting practice sessions] back and nothing can recreate going into a game with different referees and jerseys and all that.
“He was definitely able to check the boxes on that, but they’re rusty.”
For veterans like Fried, results don’t matter much this time of year.
But as he works to make his seven different pitches feel sharp by the time the regular season begins, he’s focused more on his execution.
In his first two innings, 14 of his 25 pitches were balls, but he was able to get out of both situations by turning a double play to end each one.
“The control was a little tight, but things were good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He was getting thrown back because of the hair, he was still putting out 95s there, but for the most part he was trying to do different things. He’s always working on things.”
That includes controlling the run game – a forte of Fried’s – so he enjoyed having the challenge of teammate (and on Tuesday, Panama’s) José Caballero dancing out of first base with two outs in the third inning.
“That was good,” said Fried, who threw to first base twice before delivering a 96 mph fastball to Allen Córdoba to end the inning. “That’s exactly what I wanted. For the first time in the game, to have one of the best athletes in baseball try to play a little game of cat and mouse, I pay attention to him and I try to catch him but I stand back and stay aggressive at the plate. I couldn’t have asked for a better matchup there.”
Cody Bellinger (back) took batting practice on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to take live practice Wednesday before returning to the game Thursday.
“I think he’s fine,” Boone said.
Carlos Rodón threw a bullpen session Tuesday morning that simulated two innings and included some breaking balls, a good sign that he may be close to facing batters for the first time since elbow surgery.
