Max Fried continued his turnaround from a rough stretch by pitching seven innings and earning his fourth straight victory as the New York Yankees inched closer to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East race with a 4-3 victory on Sunday afternoon.
The Yankees (80-63) won for the 11th time in 14 games since losing three straight to the Boston Red Sox Aug. 21-23 and pulled within two games of the Blue Jays (82-61).
Fried (14-5) allowed three runs on six hits and has a 1.67 ERA in his past four outings after posting a 6.80 ERA in his previous eight starts from July 1-Aug. 16. Fried struck out four, walked one, withstood two errors and got nine groundouts, including a double play to end the fifth.
Ben Rice hit a three-run homer four batters into the game off Max Scherzer and Cody Bellinger hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the third. Aaron Judge made his second start in right field since injuring a flexor tendon in his right elbow and completed a diving catch on George Springer’s sinking liner to end the fourth and protect a 4-3 lead.
Judge walked three times and stole second before giving the Yankees the lead on Bellinger’s double off the top of the right-center-field fence.
Devin Williams stranded two in the eighth and David Bednar easily finished off his fifth save with the Yankees.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit an RBI single and Nathan Lukes lifted a sacrifice fly to right field in the second for the Blue Jays, who won eight of the 13 meetings with the Yankees. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had his fourth straight multi-hit game and hit a tying RBI double in the third.
Bo Bichette (shin) sat out one day after being hurt in a collision with Yankees catcher Austin Wells.
Scherzer (5-3), who was pushed back a day to give his tight back another day to heal, allowed four runs on three hits in 4 1/3 innings. The right-hander struck out eight and walked four.
Following a walk to Judge and a bloop single by Bellinger, the Yankees took a 3-0 lead when Rice lifted a full count fastball into the right-center field seats. Rice hit his 23rd homer after fouling off a changeup into the second deck in right field earlier in the at-bat.
The Blue Jays scored two in the second on a single to left field by Kiner-Falefa and Lukes’ fly ball when Judge did not attempt a throw to home plate. Following shortstop Anthony Volpe’s 19th error, Guerrero lined a double to left field for a 3-3 tie in the third.
