Yankees’ Aaron Boone defends decision to pull Max Fried in Game 1 loss to Red Sox
"They pressured him pretty good in the fourth, fifth, sixth. They had a couple of baserunners each inning."
Yankees manager Aaron Boone addressed his decision to pull starting pitcher Max Fried after 6 1/3 shutout innings Monday night during Game 1 of the American League Wild Card series. Fried had given up just four hits.
The Yankee bullpen gave up four hits and three runs after Fried left the game. The bulk of the damage came on a two-run single from Masataka Yoshida off of Luke Weaver.
On Wednesday, Boone explained why he thought it was the right move to go to the bullpen.
“They pressured him pretty good in the fourth, fifth, sixth. They had a couple of baserunners each inning. I felt like he kind of cruised through the first few, and obviously he ends up pitching great but I felt like he had to work pretty hard.
“I was going to have the sixth be the end, but once we finished with the double play, I wanted him to go out and get [Jarren] Duran and then felt like we were lined up.”
Boone said he felt “a little bit” like Fried was getting tired as the game wore on.
“I felt like his command was not as good those final few,” Boone said. “He’s just making so many big pitches, and his stuff was good. He gave us what we needed and felt really good about the outing he put forth, but I felt pretty convicted. Especially we got the double play, it’s like, ‘Let’s go get one more hitter and be good.’”
After the game, Fried told reporters that he had enough stamina to keep pitching.
“I definitely exerted a lot of energy trying to get out of that,” Fried said. “But, I definitely had enough in the tank for whatever the team needed, but [Boone] was confident enough to give the ball to [Weaver] in that situation.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora stuck with Garret Crochet, who retired 17 straight batters in 7 2/3 innings. Crochet gave up a home run to Anthony Volpe in the second inning, but kept his composure and mustered up the strength he needed to put the Yankees away in the later innings. He hit 100 on the radar gun with a fastball on his final pitch of the night.
Aroldis Chapman got into a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning, but was able to close the game without surrendering any more runs.
Boone was asked why he specifically went to Weaver once he had decided to pull Fried.
“I’m just taking that part of the order that I want Williams or Cruz in that kind of [Trevor] Story, [Alex] Bregman [part of the lineup],” Boone said. “I’ll take Weave there at the bottom of the order, especially with an out in the books.”
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