Fried scattered five hits on the evening while issuing a pair of walks. All of the scoring done against him came in the third inning as MJ Melendez swatted a solo homer and Bobby Witt Jr. added a run-scoring double. After that, he locked in and blanked the Royals the rest of the way. Fried got 12 whiffs on 94 pitches on the night, posting a solid CSW of 30 percent. He now sits at 3-0 on the season with a brilliant 1.88 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and a 28/5 K/BB ratio over 24 innings. The left-hander will square up against the Rays his next time out in Tampa Bay on Sunday.

Sometimes, people throw out the phrase, “he had everything working” for a pitcher that may not have literally had “everything” working. However, Fried literally had everything working in this game. He forced five swings-and-misses over the first two innings with five different pitches. He wound up forcing 15 whiffs in total with six different pitches notching one each and four with multiple. This was the sixth time in his career where he’s struck out at least 10 batters and now has a miniscule 1.56 ERA over his first three starts with the Yankees. He’s lined up for a favorable two-start week coming up against the Royals and Rays.

Fried gave up a homer to Bryan Reynolds in the third, but he had little issue otherwise. He got an assist in the fifth when his HBP of Ke’Bryan Hayes went uncalled, and he then picked off Isiah Kiner-Falefa with a move that could have been called a balk. Fried has a 2.61 ERA after two starts and will get the Tigers in Detroit next time out.