Fried Almost Throws “The No Hitter that Never Was”. NY 4 Tampa 0

April 20, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0

Max Fried had a no-hitter going in the 8th inning, when all of a sudden he didn’t have a no hitter anymore – and nobody had gotten a hit. The official scorer changed his ruling on an error that happened with 1 out in the 6th — by Paul Goldschmidt that allowed Chandler Simpson to get on — changing it to a hit.

It became a moot point – maybe – when Jake Mangum led off the bottom of the 8th with a single. Although as Michael Kay always says, you can’t say for sure what would have happened if you hadn’t gone back and changed the past, or something like that.

Fried got 2 more outs in the 8th, before being relieved by Fernando Cruz, who got the final 4 outs of the game for a combined shutout – NY 4 Tampa 0 on an Easter Sunday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Cruz made it hard in the 9th, walking the first 2 batters, then made it easy with a 3-pitch strikeout and double play.

Aaron Judge hit a homer in the top of the 8th for an insurance run – and then he didn’t. The umps called it foul, and then reviewed the play and still called it foul – even though replay seemed to show the ball clearly fair, by like 20 feet. Judge then took a ball for a strike 3 – which caused manager Aaron Boone to Flip Out and get Thrown Out.

Trent Grisham led the game off with a homerun – the game winner – and made a spectacular catch in the outfield then threw into 2nd for a double play. Cody Bellinger hit a solo HR in the 6th, Anthony Volpe got 2 hits to break out of his slump, and there was that 7.2 innings of 2-hit shutout ball by Fried – a masterful performance. Even though he didn’t pitch that well according to manager Aaron Boone.

A great afternoon for Yankee fans – after NY had blown an 8-4 lead in the 9th the day before.

“The audacity of the call standing is remarkable,” said Boone afterwards about Judge’s homerun that was called foul. “It’s a homerun. It didn’t go our way though.”

“That’s a peak at how great he is,” said Boone about Fried. “Because I thought it was a grind for him actually. It took him a while to find his secondary stuff today. He only punched out two. But he pitches so well with the fastball — sinker, four-seam, add, subtract, move it around. We made a couple of errors, but it was such a well played defensive game too behind him. But it was a peak at just how good he is.”

NY improves to 14-8 – best record in the AL and in front of Toronto by 2 games. Tampa falls to 9-13.

1. Grisham Leads Off Game with HR

Tampa started 27-year-old, 6’3 righthander Ryan Pepiot, who came in with a 1-3 4.82 after going 8-8 3.60 last year for Tampa.

Lefty hitting Trent Grisham led off the game with a 368-foot HR to right and it was 1-0 Yankees.

2. Cabrera, Judge & Bellinger Make It 2-0 in 3rd

The Yanks made it 2-0 in the 3rd when Oswaldo Cabrera – batting from the left side – led off with a double to right, Aaron Judge moved him to 3rd with a 1-out single, and Cody Bellinger grounded out to score him.

3. Bellinger HR Makes It 3-0 in 6th

Bellinger added to the lead with a solo HR to right off Pepiot leading off the 6th. NY 3 Tampa 0.

4. Fried Fantastic – No Hitter Into 8th. Not

Meanwhile Max Fried was tremendous. Again.

He worked around a throwing error by Oswaldo Cabrera in the 1st, and a 1-out walk to Jonathan Aranda by getting a double play to end the inning.

Fried then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd and 3rd.

Oswaldo Cabrera made Another throwing error with 2 out in the 4th – allowing Christopher Morel to get on. Fried then picked Morel off 2nd base.

Fried got help from Trent Grisham in the 5th – after allowing a 1-out walk to Danny Jansen, Jake Mangum hit a drive to center that Grisham fought the wind on to make a tremendous catch, then threw in and nailed Jansen trying to advance to 2nd.

Then came the 6th when Chandler Simpson reached on a 1-out error by Goldschmidt at 1st base.

Fried got out of the jam by getting a line out and fly out and had the no hitter going thru 6 innings.

Fried got the first out of the 7th, then Jazz Chisholm Jr. saved the no-hitter with a tremendous diving catch into the outfield. 2 outs!

Fried then went into an 8-pitch at bat against Curtis Mead before hitting him with a pitch – then got Jansen to fly out to right to end the inning.

Shhhh…. Fried had a No Hitter through 7 innings!

5. Judge HR in 8th. Not

Aaron Judge made it 4-0 leading off the 8th with an apparent HR to left – that was ruled foul. After review the umps still called it foul. Judge then struck out on a called strike 3 that seemed a tad low and Boone went ballistic, and was thrown out.

6. No Hitter Not

As the bottom of the 8th began the scoreboard suddenly showed a hit for Tampa. Word came across the line that the official scorer – Tampa’s Bill Matthews – had changed his ruling on Goldschmidt’s error in the 6th. So Fried wasn’t pitching a no hitter anymore. The announcers on the YES and radio broadcasts were stunned, as were fans, and people who heard about it across baseball.

7. Fried Allows a Hit – Breaking Up the 1-Hitter

Jake Mangum then led off the 8th against Fried with a single to center to break up the no-hitter with Tampa’s 2nd hit of the game. So it was all a moot point, maybe.

Fried got the next 2 batters and left with a line of: 7.2 IP, 2 hits?, 0 runs, 2 K’s, 2 Walks. He gets the win to go 4-0 1.42.

8. Wells HR in 9th Makes It 4-0 NY

Austin Wells definitely hit a homerun in the top of the 9th – ruled fair as it was fair – and NY had a 4-0 lead.

9. Fernando Makes It Difficult then Easy

Fernando Cruz began the 9th by walking the first 2 batters in a 4-0 game. It’s never easy.
And then he struck out Curtis Mead on 3 pitches and Jansen to hit a 2nd-pitch groundout for a game-inning double play for the old ballgame. That was easy.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401695229

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