Last night the Yankees built an early lead against the Cardinals and held on for dear life. It wasn’t the most reassuring way to win a game, but any wins are welcome with the Yankees occupying the final playoff spot in the American League. Tonight they’ll face a robust challenge in old friend Sonny Gray, and Max Fried will try to get things right against a team against whom he has plenty of past success.

Yes, it is still a rather small six-game, five-start sample, but Fried put together some excellent performances against the Redbirds as a Brave. All five starts were ‘quality starts’: six or more innings with three earned runs or fewer. He’s held St. Louis hitters to a .479 OPS against him. A quality start like that is just what the Yankees would be looking for out of Fried; he’s only mad

See Full Page