Max Fried pitched six scoreless innings and was backed by three homers as the New York Yankees recorded a 4-2 victory over the Texas Rangers Monday night in Arlington, Texas.
Ben Rice, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered as the Yankees won for the ninth time in 10 games. New York hit at least three homers for the seventh time in its first 29 games.
Fried (4-1) allowed four hits and produced his fourth scoreless start this season. The left-hander notched three of his five strikeouts against Corey Seager and walked two.
Fried was also backed by a pair of double plays started by Jose Caballero in the first and sixth against Josh Jung and Brandon Nimmo. Fried also notched his MLB-best 38th pickoff since 2017 when he picked off Jung in the fourth.
Rice hit a two-run shot off Texas starter Jack Leiter (1-2) in the second after a single by Trent Grisham. Rice homered for the sixth time in his past 11 games when he drove a first-pitch fastball into the visiting bullpen beyond the left field fence.
Judge followed by sending a full-count curveball to left field. Judge homered for the eighth time in 15 games and his 11th homer tied Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and Chicago White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami for the major league lead.
Chisholm gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead by lifting a first-pitch slider into the right field seats in the fourth. It was the second baseman’s third homer in his past five games after not going deep in his first 23 games.
Judge finished with three hits and reached base four times as the Yankees improved to 6-1 on their nine-game road trip.
Leiter allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings. He struck out four, walked one and tied a career high by allowing three homers.
Joc Pederson hit a pinch-hit homer off Camilo Doval in the seventh but Texas lost for the sixth time in nine games. Seager grounded out with two on in the eighth against Tim Hill and David Bednar allowed an RBI single to Alejandro Osuna in the ninth before securing his eighth save in nine chances.
