Aaron Boone gets honest about Max Fried's first loss vs. Dodgers in Yankees' 8-5 defeat

The New York Yankees' first game of their World Series replay from last season against the Los Angeles Dodgers didn't end for Aaron Boone's team as they lost 8-5 on Friday.

The Yankees led the series opener 5-2 after the third inning, with four Yankees sluggers going deep in the contest. However, Yankees ace Max Fried, who had been unshakable on the mound with a 6-0 record heading into Friday's game, took his first loss of the season.

Fried last five innings on the mound as the AL Cy Young contender conceded a season-high six earned runs over eight hits while striking out three Dodgers hitters.

Following the loss, Yankees manager Aaron Boone got honest about what went wrong with Fried in the series opener.

"I don't think he had his good breaking ball going tonight and then, that inning just just left some pitches in the heart of the plate. Just, some really good hitters there. He fell behindhShohei, and he gets some.

"I thought Teoscar did a good job. It might have been a change up that he just kind of punched the other way, and then Smith gets him back through the middle and then it looked like a sinker to Freddy. So, just a rough inning where some good hitters got to him.

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Fried was taken off the mound after allowing four runs in the sixth as the Dodgers came from behind to lead 6-5. The defending World Series winners added another two runs in the seventh to make it 8-5 and held onto the score to clinch the series opener.

Max Fried reflected on his performance against Dodgers

A stacked Dodgers order, despite Mookie Betts' absence, proved to be Max Fried's biggest challenge this season. The Yankees ace struggled for consistency in his first shaky starts of the season and didn't hide after his disappointing outing of Friday.

"Obviously, a big core group of [the Dodgers] won the World Series last year. They know how to win games,” Max Fried said. “The guys did a great job tonight, putting up early runs. For the most part, I just didn’t do my job.”

Aaron Boone will look to bounce back in the second game on Saturday after the pitching let them down in the series opener.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash