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Try it freeTORONTO — Max Fried could not explain it.
His stuff was there. He felt as if he located well. He threw 3,109 pitches during the regular season, and none was faster than the 99.2 mph sinker he threw to Alejandro Kirk on Sunday. That sinker, which averaged 94 mph during the regular season, spiked to 96.1 mph in the 20 times he turned to the offering.
And yet nothing — not his array of mixed-speed fastballs, nor the off-speed or breaking stuff from a six-pitch mix — worked.
“I pride myself in being able to change speeds and keep guys off-balance,” Fried said, “and they weren’t off-balance.”
Yankees starter Max Fried reacts after the second inning during Game 2 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays on Oct. 5, 2025. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
Fried exited in the fourth inning — recording just one more out than Luis Gil had a night earlier — and was charged with seven runs in a startling Game 2 dud at Rogers Centre on Sunday, part of a 13-7 slapping from the Blue Jays that pushed the Yankees one loss from elimination in the ALDS.
With reduced stuff and velocity, Gil was hittable in 2 ²/₃ innings Saturday, when he allowed a pair of home runs and plenty of hard contact before he was pulled.
This was not the case for Fried, who had been brilliant in 6 ¹/₃ scoreless innings in Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Red Sox. In his second postseason start this year, he allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out just one with movement and velocity with which he was pleased.
“They obviously had a really good approach. They were on a lot of my pitches,” said Fried, who was ambushed early in counts a few times.
He allowed two runs in the second, when Daulton Varsho jumped on a second-pitch sweeper for a double (and reached third on an Aaron Judge error) before Ernie Clement sat on a first-pitch curveball that he blasted to left for a two-run edge.
The Jays added in the third, when a walk, RBI groundout and three hits — including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. redirecting a first-pitch cutter for a single and Varsho smacking a first-pitch sinker for another double — scored three more.
Max Fried pitching for the Yankees against the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the ALDS on Oct. 5, 2025. Jason Szenes / New York Post“We talked about kind of trying to grind him a bit,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Fried gave up a postseason career-high number of runs in his 22nd October appearance. “I thought our at-bats were tremendous against him. He’s one of the best in the league. Kind of just took what we got.”
Two of those runs charged to Fried scored after he exited, when he hande a two-on, none-out jam to Will Warren in the fourth that led to a grand slam by Guerrero.
If the Yankees find a way to win two games in The Bronx and send the series to a Game 5, Fried is lined up to pitch again on the regular four days of rest.
If Carlos Rodón and Cam Schlittler can do their jobs well enough in Games 3 and 4, respectively, the ball likely would go to Fried, who now must diagnose what went wrong.
“Felt like I was mixing a lot of different fastballs,” Fried said, “and when I threw the off-speed, they seemed to be on it, too.”
