Fernando-mania has reached the Bronx.
Well, sort of. Max Fried hasn’t drawn quite the frenzy for the New York Yankees that Fernando Valenzuela did when he debuted for the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1981.
But in terms of pitching accomplishment, Fried is the first starter to ever do what Valenzuela did.
Through seven starts with the Yankees, Fried has six wins and has only allowed five earned runs.
The only other pitcher to ever do that through seven starts with a new team was Valenzuela back in 1981, per OptaStats.
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On Friday night, Fried threw seven one-hit innings against the Rays with six strikeouts.
His full stats to this point in the season: 6-0, 1.01 ERA, 39 strikeouts in 44.2 innings, 0.94 WHIP.
Fried, signed for eight years and $215 million in the offseason, has been worth every penny so far.
He’s been even more important given the pitching injuries to the likes of Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil.
New York will be hoping Fried can keep this up every fifth day. He makes life easy on the bullpen and the manager.
So far, there’s no reason to believe that Max-mania is stopping anytime soon.
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