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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.
While allowing just three singles, Fried generated a season-high 28 swings-and-misses on a night when the Orioles took 45 swings against him.
He recorded a strikeout with five different pitches, but his changeup was especially sharp, accounting for eight whiffs on 10 swings.
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 1 ¹/₂ 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, as he continued his late-season bounce back from a mid-summer slump. He has posted 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, when he will almost certainly be their Game 1 starter in a playoff series.
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 Paul 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 Orioles’ best chance against Fried came in the sixth inning when a pair of singles put runners on the corners with two outs.
But Fried struck out Tyler O’Neill on a 99-mph fastball to end the threat.
The Yankees then broke the game open with a four-run seventh inning against reliever Chayce McDermott.
Goldschmidt delivered an RBI single and Aaron Judge lifted a sacrifice fly before Giancarlo Stanton smoked a bullet double down the left-field line to drive in a pair of runs for the 7-0 lead.
Paul Blackburn relieved Fried and tossed two hitless innings to close out the game and give the Yankees’ high-leverage relievers the night off.
Just about the only negative on the night for the Yankees was their baserunning. José Caballero and Jazz Chisholm Jr. both made outs at third base after getting picked off/caught stealing by the pitcher.
