It’s not often that the lead story of a baseball game ends up being a scoring decision. While it didn’t end up mattering, scorer Bill Mathews’ decision to change an error to an infield single will draw the headlines from this game, but other than that, it was a pretty nice performance from the Yankees.

The decision and most of the drama in the game surrounded Max Fried. The Yankees’ new ace threw 7.2 scoreless innings, and — timeline-wise — took a no-hitter through seven innings. The drama came about through the fact that a Paul Goldschmidt error in the sixth inning which had kept the no-hitter going was changed to a hit nearly two innings after the fact, essentially taking away the no-no off the field as opposed to on it.

Beyond that annoyance, the game went well for the Yankees. Fried was obviously very good, and led by homers from Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Austin Wells, the Yankees’ offense did enough for a 4-0 win to take the series over the Rays.

Thanks in part to his hot start to the season, Grisham was given a chance to hit in the leadoff spot, and he took full advantage of it. On the third pitch of the game, Grisham took a Ryan Pepiot offering out to right for his sixth homer of 2025 already and a perfect start to the afternoon.

The Yankees added to their lead in the third, thanks to a bit of luck. After Oswaldo Cabrera led off the inning with a double, Aaron Judge managed to just squeeze a broken-bat single through a couple defenders, moving Cabrera to third. Bellinger then grounded into a possible inning-ending double play, but he was fast enough to beat out the throw to first, allowing Cabrera to score.

In the sixth, Bellinger brought home another run in a much better fashion. He got into the home run column for the first time since the March 29th pummeling of Milwaukee that set off the torpedo bat craze, going deep to right for a solo shot.

The game’s most controversial play came in the bottom of the sixth. With one out in the inning, Goldschmidt couldn’t handle a Chandler Simpson grounder for an error. Watching the play, you could certainly make the argument that Simpson would’ve beat out Goldschmidt and/or a covering Fried to the bag even if the grounder was fielded cleanly.

The main issue was that the Rays’ official scorer initially ruled it an error, and didn’t change it to a hit until just a Fried was about to take the mound for the eighth inning. Even beyond the fact that this added a bunch of theoretically high-stress, no-hit bid pitches in the meantime, it also gives the allusion of home cooking, whether or not the Rays’ scorer actually did just think things over further. Thankfully, it didn’t end up mattering.

Even before that ruling change happened, there was another annoying moment. After a couple controversial ball/strike calls early in the game, it seemed like manager Aaron Boone might not be long for the game, but he actually ended up making it until the eighth. However, his heave-ho didn’t end up being related to the strike zone. In the eighth, Judge hit a long fly ball out to left field that was along the line and ruled foul.

Despite some replays making it look like it was clearly fair, the foul call was upheld on review, and Judge was then called out looking for strike three. While that call was fine, it was right on the edge, and Judge looked perturbed about both that and the previous call, leading to Boone coming out of the dugout and getting himself tossed before anything happened to Judge.

Any long-term controversy went away when Fried allowed a hit to Jake Mangum to start the eighth inning, shortly after the news of the scoring change. He exited a few batters later, having allowed two hits and two walks in 7.2 scoreless innings. Fried has simply been masterful thus far, providing at least one stable spot to a turbulent rotation while recording a 1.42 ERA during his first month in pinstripes.

Fernando Cruz replaced Fried and finished off the eighth before coming back out for the ninth. He issued a couple walks to start the inning, but eventually worked around it and got a game-ending double play to finish things off for his second career save (and second in less than a week).

Having wrapped up a road series in some familiar surroundings, the Yankees will now truly be on the road starting tomorrow. They’re now headed up to Cleveland for a three-game set against the Guardians, starting tomorrow with first pitch from righty Gavin Williams at 6:10pm ET. Clarke Schmidt is set to get the start in his second game back from the IL.

Box Score