Yankees bats, reliable Max Fried power convincing win over Blue Jays

The Yankees entered Sunday having lost three of four and four of their past six.

But they had the perfect solution for their recent bump in the road: a start from Max Fried.

Fried delivered another terrific outing, and the Yankees won for the sixth time in the left-hander’s six starts this season.

He’s yet to allow more than two earned runs in an outing.

It helped that Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman imploded in a six-run third, as the Yankees pulled away for an 11-2 victory in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader in The Bronx.

The Yankees trailed 1-0 entering the bottom of the third, but drew five walks and got a three-run double from Austin Wells.

It was their biggest scoring output since they put up a dozen runs against the Brewers on March 30.

Fried wasn’t as crisp as his previous outing, when he flirted with a no-hitter against the Rays, but he allowed just one run in six innings and his ERA actually ticked up to 1.43.

Still, he’s been everything the Yankees could ask for since signing a seven-year, $218 million deal as their Juan Soto consolation prize.

Fried allowed a grounder to third by Bo Bichette to start the game and Oswaldo Cabrera threw high to first, allowing Bichette to end up on second base in what was ruled a single and an error.

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A Fried wild pitch sent Bichette to third and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s groundout drove in the game’s first run.

Fried issued a four-pitch walk to Anthony Santander and a two-out single to Alejandro Kirk to extend the inning before a walk to Andres Gimenez loaded the bases.

But Fried got Ernie Clement to pop out to right.

A pair of one-out singles gave Toronto another threat in the second, and with Guerrero at the plate again, Fried caught Myles Straw off second and Straw was out after a rundown.

Guerrero flied out to keep it a one-run game.

The Yankee offense came alive in the third, as Gausman walked Cabrera and Ben Rice with one out in the third to bring up Aaron Judge.

Judge ripped a shot off the wall in right, but Cabrera misread it and had to stop at third.

With the bases loaded, Cody Bellinger — showing signs of heating up at the plate — hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Cabrera to tie the game at 1-1.

A two-out walk by Paul Goldschmidt got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the plate with the bases loaded. Chisholm walked on four pitches to give the Yankees the lead.

Anthony Volpe fell behind 0-2, but fought back to draw another run-scoring walk.

Wells, after also fighting back from 0-2 to a full count, hammered a three-run double to right-center to make it 6-1 and end Gausman’s day.

Gausman needed just 18 pitches in cruising through the first two innings, but threw 53 in the third and didn’t get out of the inning.

The Yankees had just two hits in their six-run third and Gausman was ejected by home plate umpire Chris Conroy as Toronto manager John Schneider was on his way to remove him from the game.

It was Gausman’s shortest outing in more than a year, since the Yankees knocked him out in the second inning of a start on April 6, 2024.

Schneider was also tossed in the top of the fifth during a Guerrero at-bat for arguing balls and strikes.

Volpe added to the lead with an opposite-field solo shot in the fifth.

Volpe had four homers in his first five games of the season, but Sunday’s was his first since April 2, this time sparking a three-run inning.

Yerry de los Santos tossed a pair of scoreless innings before lefty Tyler Matzek allowed a run in the ninth in his Yankee debut after being sidelined with an oblique injury.