BALTIMORE — The Yankees have finally discovered the cure for their hangover from a late night of travel: Send Max Fried to the mound.
The left-hander flew here Wednesday ahead of his teammates — as the Yankees have done with their starting pitcher each of the last few times they have played late getaway games — and gave them a giant shot in the arm with his best performance of the year.
Fried tied a career high by striking out 13 batters, dominating the Orioles across seven shutout innings as the Yankees cruised to a 7-0 win on Thursday night at Camden Yards.
“He’s an ace, so he pitches like that,” manager Aaron Boone said.
With the win, the Yankees (86-67) picked up a game on the Blue Jays for the second straight day, now trailing them by three games for the division with nine to play (and Toronto owning the tiebreaker).
They also own the top AL wild-card spot by two games over the Mariners and Astros (who are tied for the AL West) and three games over the Red Sox.
The Orioles (72-81) entered Thursday having spent almost the entire season in last place of the AL East, but they had won 12 of their prior 17 games.
Still, they were no match for Fried in what was likely his penultimate start before the playoffs, when he will almost certainly be the Yankees’ Game 1 starter.
While allowing just three singles and one walk, Fried generated a season-high 28 swings-and-misses on a night when the Orioles took 45 swings against him.
- CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS
He recorded a strikeout with five different pitches, but his changeup was especially sharp, accounting for eight whiffs on 10 swings.
Following a midseason-slump, when he posted a 6.80 ERA across an eight-start stretch, Fried has pitched to a 1.60 ERA over his last six starts, returning to his early season brilliance at the right time as the Yankees head toward October.
“I think anytime you go through a rough patch, if you learn from it and you’re able to make an adjustment, there’s a bright side to it,” said Fried, who earned his career-high 18th win. “Obviously, I wish I didn’t go through it. Not ideal, you want to go out there and win games, not put the team in a hole or give up leads. Wish I could have learned the lesson a little differently, but it’s always about making an adjustment.”
What Fried learned was sticking to his strengths, leaning into his deep arsenal and ability to mix speeds, and trusting his defense to make plays behind him so he can throw the ball over the plate.
“I faced him a lot where he was doing that to us,” said Paul Goldschmidt, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a pair of runs. “Number one, you don’t know what you’re going to get. He’s got so many pitches and he’s a smart pitcher out there. He mixes it up, doesn’t fall into patterns and just executes. That’s what he was doing tonight.”
Earlier on this 10-day, 10-game trip, the Yankees endured a late travel night Sunday into Monday, flying from Boston to Minneapolis, and then fell flat Monday night against the Twins while getting shut out.
They made sure there was no repeat of that Thursday, as they immediately jumped ahead with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning against Orioles left-hander Cade Povich.
After Goldschmidt singled and Cody Bellinger drew an eight-pitch walk, lefty killer Amed Rosario roped a two-run double into the left-field corner.
Anthony Volpe’s legs led to another run in the fifth inning.
He led off with a hustle double, then immediately stole third, allowing him to score on Austin Wells’ single to make it 3-0.
The Yankees then broke the game open with a four-run seventh inning, capped off by Giancarlo Stanton smoking a bullet double down the left-field line to drive in a pair of runs for the 7-0 lead.
“We’re playing some pretty good baseball right now,” Fried said. “That’s when you want to really hit your stride. Going into the last week or so, we’re excited and want to go out there and finish strong.”