Max Fried stumbled in his final outing of the regular season, but there’s plenty of reason to believe the Yankees southpaw will get back on track in Wednesday’s Wild Card Round Game 2 against the Red Sox.
Before allowing four earned runs against the Rays on Sept. 22, Fried had been on an impressive run, surrendering one or fewer earned runs in seven consecutive starts over the final weeks of the regular season.
He also had Boston’s number this season, tossing eight scoreless innings at Fenway Park in April before holding the Red Sox to one run over 3 ⅔ innings in their late-August meeting in a short outing after a brief injured list stint.
Fried will also have the benefit of seven full days of rest between outings, giving the veteran lefty a chance to enter his first postseason start of the year with a fresh arm after dealing with injuries on-and-off this season.
The Red Sox haven’t exactly been lighting up the scoreboard lately, either, failing to score more than six runs in a game in the entire month of September heading into the series.
Boston will have its best hitter, Willson Contreras, in the lineup, but it’s unclear how close to 100 percent he’ll be after battling a hand injury that had prevented him from swinging comfortably as recently as late last week.
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When healthy, the Yankees have leaned on Fried to deliver all season, and there’s little reason to expect that to change with their season potentially hanging in the balance.
THE PLAY: Max Fried under 2.5 earned runs (-109, DraftKings)
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Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He’s particularly knowledgeable about the big three — MLB, the NFL and the NBA.
