TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — New York Yankees left-hander Max Fried lost a no-hit bid in Sunday's 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays just as the bottom of the eighth inning was about to start when the official scorer changed a sixth-inning call to a hit from an error.
Rookie Chandler Simpson hit a grounder into the hole between first and second with one out in the sixth and reached when the ball bounced off the glove of first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
Official scorer Bill Mathews at first called the play an error,
Fried was hitless through seven innings and was about to throw his first pitch of the eighth when Mathews announced he changed the decision to an error. Mathews said he looked at several video replays and determined Simpson would have beaten any throw to first.
Jake Mangum then led off the eighth with a clean single to center on Fried's fifth pitch of the inning. Fried allowed two hits in 7 2/3 innings, throwing 102 pitches.
New York had made three defensive gems to keep Tampa Bay hitless and led 3-0.
In the third, Fried hustled to first base to beat the speedy Simpson by half a step on a grounder to Goldschmidt.
Then to end the fifth, Trent Grisham robbed Mangum with a diving catch in deep right-center before throwing out Danny Jansen attempting to tag up and go to second.
Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. sprinted 74 feet from his second base position to make a backhand grab as he was falling of Christopher Morel's popup to shallow left-center.
Fried, 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA, signed a $218 million, eight-year contract with the Yankees during the offseason.
Tampa Bay's Triple-A Durham Bulls no-hit the Yankees' Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Saturday.
Grisham lined Ryan Pepiot’s third pitch of the game into the right-center bleachers, his fifth career leadoff homer. Hitting leadoff for the first time since June 4, 2023, Grisham also homered Saturday off Shane Baz.
Cody Bellinger also homered off Pepiot to lead off the sixth inning and Austin Wells homered against Garrett Cleavinger in the ninth. In the third, Bellinger hit into a run-scoring forceout.
Last May 11, Fried pitched seven hitless innings for Atlanta at the New York Mets' Citi Field and was removed after 109 pitches in a 4-1 win. Joe Jiménez worked around a pair of walks in the eighth before Raisel Iglesias retired the first two batters of the ninth. J.D. Martinez homered just over the wall in right field on the next pitch off Iglesias.
New York's Aaron Boone was ejected in the eighth inning for the 40th time in his managerial career and first time this season.
Aaron Judge hit a drive to deep left that was ruled foul, a decision upheld in a video review, then took a called third strike. Judge started to have words with plate umpire Adam Beck, and Boone came out of the dugout and immediately was tossed.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Zak Gilbert, The Associated Press
