Yankees’ Fried loses no-hit bid in 8th vs. Rays

TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees left-hander Max Fried lost a no-hit bid in Sunday’s 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays just as the bottom of the eighth inning was about to start when the official scorer changed a sixth-inning call to a hit after originally calling it an error.

Rookie Chandler Simpson hit a grounder into the hole between first and second with one out in the sixth and reached when the ball bounced off the glove of first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Official scorer Bill Mathews at first called the play an error.

Fried was hitless through seven innings and was about to throw his first pitch of the eighth when Mathews announced he changed the decision to a hit. Mathews said he looked at several video replays and determined Simpson would have beaten any throw to first.

Jake Mangum then led off the eighth with a clean single to center on Fried’s fifth pitch of the inning. Fried allowed two hits over 7⅔ innings, throwing 102 pitches.

“I thought the first hit was the first hit in the eighth there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I saw afterward that they had changed it. Look, we’re not going to beat him to the bag, so I get it, but it makes it a little bit dicey when it’s within the game — or obviously with a no-hitter going on, but the reality is it was a hit.”

Boone was surprised the initial call was an error.

“I scratch my head at the official scorers nightly,” he said. “They throw an error up on the board at Yankee Stadium and then we go to these other places and they can fire up a hit with the best of them. It’s a different game in every other park.”

Fried, though, wasn’t fazed during the game, or in the clubhouse, after the win.

“After I came out,” Fried said, when asked when he realized the scorer’s decision. “I had no idea, I looked up and saw two hits. It is what it is. I’m just happy we got the win.”

New York had made three defensive gems to keep Tampa Bay hitless and led 3-0. In the third, Fried hustled to first base to beat the speedy Simpson by half a step on a grounder to Goldschmidt.

Then to end the fifth, Trent Grisham robbed Mangum with a diving catch in deep right-center before throwing out Danny Jansen attempting to tag up and go to second.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. sprinted 74 feet from his position at second base to make a falling, backhanded catch on Christopher Morel‘s popup to shallow left-center.

“I’ve been trusting this defense all year,” Fried said after the Yankees improved to 5-0 in games he has started this season. “They had some unbelievable plays behind me today to be able to just keep attacking. It’s a lot easier when I know I can just hunt some contact and know that we’ve got some really good defenders behind me to go and make the play.”

Fried, 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA, signed a $218 million, eight-year contract with the Yankees during the offseason.

Grisham lined Ryan Pepiot’s third pitch of the game into the right-center bleachers for his fifth career leadoff homer. Grisham, who also homered Saturday off Shane Baz, hit leadoff Sunday for the first time since June 4, 2023.

Cody Bellinger also homered off Pepiot to lead off the sixth inning, and Austin Wells homered against Garrett Cleavinger in the ninth. In the third, Bellinger hit into a run-scoring forceout.

Boone was ejected in the eighth inning for the 40th time in his managerial career and first time this season.

Aaron Judge hit a drive to deep left that was ruled foul, a decision upheld in a video review, then took a called third strike. Judge started to have words with plate umpire Adam Beck, and Boone came out of the dugout and immediately was tossed.

“The audacity of the call standing is remarkable,” Boone said. “It’s a home run.”

Judge concurred with his manager, adding that “it was a fair ball. It’s just tough in a situation like this, in a minor league park, where the foul poles aren’t that high. … They missed it and we’ve just got to move on.”

Joe Jimenez worked around a pair of walks in the eighth before Raisel Iglesias retired the first two batters of the ninth. J.D. Martinez homered just over the wall in right field on the next pitch off Iglesias.

Fried pitched seven hitless innings for Atlanta at the New York Mets’ Citi Field and was removed after 109 pitches in a 4-1 win on May 11, 2024.

Tampa Bay’s Triple-A Durham Bulls no-hit the Yankees’ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.