1. If you sat through the rain and through the Yankees’ 9-1, rain-shortened loss at Yankee Stadium on Friday night I feel sorry for you. The only way I was going to the Bronx on Friday night with the forecast being what it was would have been if the Yankees used me as the starting pitcher. They should have. Instead, Marcus Stroman started for the Yankees in what should be his last start as a Yankee. Unfortunately, it won’t be.

Stroman finished last season by allowing 131 baserunners in 75 innings and pitching to a 5.88 ERA. In those 16 games (15 starts), hitters had an .847 OPS against him. Francisco Lindor finished second in the National League MVP voting last year with an .844 OPS. So Stroman turned every hitter over the last three months of last season into a better hitter than the NL MVP runner-up.

Stroman went to spring training with a trade seemingly inevitable as the odd-man out in the rotation before three injuries made him the No. 3. In his first two starts, he was just plain bad, pitching 8 2/3 innings with a 7.27 ERA. but on Friday agains the Giants, he wasn’t just his usual bad self, he flat-out sucked.

2. The first pitch of Stroman’s night was crushed into the right-center gap for a double. After nibbling around the strike zone for a walk, he allowed a three-run home run to Jung Hoo Lee. A couple of walks and another double later, and Stroman had the Yankees in a five-run hole with a runner on second and still no outs. Stroman didn’t make it through the first inning. He needed 46 pitches to get just two outs. With 13 games over the next 13 days, Stroman put the bullpen in a tough spot, needing to get 25 outs in the game. Fortunately, for the Yankees, the game was called during the top of the sixth inning with them trailing by eight runs, so they could preserve their bullpen for the rest of the night and the series.

3. On Saturday, it was Will Warren’s turn to provide something other than disaster from the four-fifths of the rotation not named Max Fried. Warren was given an early two-run lead to work with, but in the half-inning immediately following those runs, he gave them right back. Warren settled down after the two-run second to pitch three scoreless innings. His final line for the. day: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K 1 HR. If he can do that every five days, everyone would be happy.

4. The Yankees scored five runs in the fifth to break the 2-2 tie and take a 7-2 lead. Fernando Cruz gave two of the runs right back in typical Yankees fashion as he was allowed to face the heart of the Giants’ order with Aaron Boone treating a five-run lead in the sixth inning like a 10-run lead in the ninth. The Yankees got one back to take an 8-4 lead into the seventh.

Because Boone let Cruz unsuccessfully face the heart of the order, he had to lean on Luke Weaver for four outs before turning the ball over to Devin Williams in the ninth. Despite having a four-run cushion, Williams made it as hard as possible to close the game out, allowing a walk and double to begin his outing before finally retiring the side. Williams has now allowed 11 baserunners in four innings this season. My 1-to-10 confidence level with him is about a 1.2 through two-plus weeks. Right where Clay Holmes left off.

5. Then there was Sunday: the rubber game. A chance for the Yankees to win a series and move to three games over .500.

The Yankees were able to jump on Logan Webb early, plating one run in the first and two in the second. They held a 3-0 lead going in the fourth with Carlos Rodon having yet to give up a hit. But then Rodon gave up a solo home run to Lee (who hit the three-run, first-inning home run off Stroman on Friday) to get the Giants on the board. The Yankees’ 3-1 lead held up until the sixth when Rodon unraveled.

No. 9 hitter Christian Koss led off the sixth with an infield single to short. It was a tough play for Anthony Volpe, but one you would think a “Gold Glove” shortstop should make. With one out, Rodon walked Willy Adames, to put the tying run on base and to bring up Lee as the go-ahead run. When adversity hits Rodon on the mound, he tends to lose it all within seconds. Every Yankees fan knows this after watching him make 54 starts with the team. The only person who doesn’t know this is his manager.

I don’t fault Boone as much as normal for leaving Rodon in to face Lee, considering it was a left-on-left matchup. Pitch him away, keep him to the big part of the Stadium and you’ll be fine. But like clockwork, Rodon started unraveling after the infield single and never stopped until he was removed from the game.

Rodon got ahead of Lee 1-2 and then threw the equivalent of a get-me-over-curveball which hung in the middle of the plate for Lee to drive over the wall in right field. Before playing the Yankees this weekend, Lee had hit three home runs in 48 career games. He hit three against the Yankees in the series, and his second on Sunday gave the Giants a 4-3 lead.

Rodon allowed five earned runs in six innings in his last start and Boone said, “I thought he threw the ball great. I really did.” In this one, Rodon only allowed four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. How did Boone think he pitched? “I thought he was excellent,” his manager said. Nothing exemplifies “excellence” like allowing four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings, including two home runs to the same player, while blowing a three-run lead.

6. If Rodon reminds you of a former Yankee who seemed to always have “great stuff” but frequently imploded, couldn’t control his emotions on the mound and could unravel in the span of a few pitches, it’s because you’re thinking of A.J. Burnett. As Katie Sharp posted on social media, Rodon has pitched 36 games in the regular season since the start of last year and has allowed 36 home runs, 69 walks and 10 hit batters. The last Yankee to do that was Burnett. At least Burnett gave us a World Series-saving gem. In Rodon’s only World Series start with the Yankees, he got blasted for three home runs and four earned runs in only 3 1/3 innings.

7. Combine the Yankees’ knack for rolling over and dying when trailing late in games with the Giants’ bullpen depth and once the Giants had the lead the remainder of the game became a formality.

Hayden Birdsong pitched a 1-2-3 sixth on eight pitches, came back out for the seventh, drilled Aaron Judge and threw up another zero.

The Giants led 5-3 in the eighth when Jazz Chisholm led off with a short-porch home run to break an 0-for-24 slump, but Volpe, Jasson Dominguez and J.C. Escarra followed by lying down for Tyler Rogers.

In the ninth, after Austin Wells pinch hit for Oswaldo Cabrera and flew out, Ben Rice grounded out and Judge kept the bat on his shoulder to go down looking to end the game for a 5-4 loss. A nice, solid 1-for-13 with four strikeouts and a hit by pitch for the Yankees against the Giants’ bullpen.

It was a bad loss, the Yankees’ third of the season, along with the April 1 loss to the Diamondbacks (when they blew a two-run lead in the eighth) and the April 6 loss to the Pirates (when they overcame a three-run deficit in the ninth only to lose in the 11th).

8. The Yankees could have scored more early on on Sunday, just like they had their chances to get back in the game on Friday, but in both games, they left runners on all over the place.

On Friday, they stranded one in the first, two in the second, two more in the third and another in the fifth before the game was called.

On Sunday, they left one on in the first and another in the second. In the fourth, they had runners on first and second with no outs, but Boone let Escarra hit rather than sacrifice bunt, and the runners never advanced in the inning. (Not only did Boone let Escarra hit there, but he also let him swing away on 3-0 in the eighth trailing by a run.) They left two more on in the fifth when they had first and second and one out, and then after that, the Giants’ bullpen put them to sleep.

9. When the going gets tough, these Yankees get going. They aren’t about to rally late to win a game. In Pittsburgh, they rallied only for their lack of situational hitting to doom them in extras. At best, they put together enough of a rally to make you think they may come back and win, only to fall short.

The Yankees are now 8-7. They are 2-3 in their five series. They are 5-7 since the season-opening Brewers series. They lost five of seven this past week to the Pirates, Tigers and Giants. On days when Fried doesn’t pitch, they need the offense to score eight-plus runs to have a chance, and it’s hard to do that when you have an inconsistent bat hitting third (Cody Bellinger) and a blackhole in the middle of the lineup in Chisholm. There is one truly trustworthy arm in the bullpen (Luke Weaver) and the manager doesn’t seem to know when to best use him and is mostly too scared to use him.

10. Through 13 games the Yankees have received at least six innings from a starter TWO times. TWO! I’m not sure how the team thinks it can keep that up, but they are going to keep it up as long as Rodon continues to implode and Stroman and Carlos Carrasco keep getting the ball. And they are going to keep getting the ball. At least Carrasco is since Stroman is now suddenly “injured” with knee inflammation. (Yeah, knee inflammation is the cause of him nibbling around the strike zone with 90-mph sinkers dating back nearly a full calendar year.)

10. If Fried starts or the offense scores eight-plus runs, the Yankees win. If neither of those things happen, they lose. When Fried starts, they’re 3-0. When Fried doesn’t start, but the Yankees score eight-plus runs, they’re 5-0. When Fried doesn’t start, but the Yankees don’t score at least eight runs, they’re 0-7. Thankfully, it’s Fried’s turn to pitch on Tuesday.

But before Tuesday, Carrasco will get the ball on Monday. We know how the game will go: the Yankees will score at least eight runs and they’ll win, or they won’t, and they’ll lose.

1. The Yankees had to have the series and road trip finale in Detroit. A loss on Thursday in Detroit would have extended their losing streak to four straight, would have dropped them to .500, would have wasted a dominant starting pitching effort, would have made for a depressed plane ride and trip back home and would have lingered throughout Thursday’s day off. Thankfully, none of that happened or will happen. The Yankees have Max Fried and Ben Rice to thank for that.

2. After Fried’s most recent start in Pittsburgh (5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR), I wrote: It’s exciting to think about how good Fried will be when he’s “on” in one of his starts, which he certainly wasn’t on Opening Day and really wasn’t against the Pirates.

Well, Fried was “on” on Thursday for the first time as a Yankee: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K. He stifled the Tigers’ bats in a way the two Carloses couldn’t and led the Yankees to a win.

Prior to Wednesday’s game, I wrote: The series finale is the kind of start the Yankees got Max Fried for. Three straight losses and a matchup against an unimpressive offense. This is a game the Yankees need to Fried to go out there and hand the ball off to Luke Weaver and then Devin Williams with no one in between and salvage the final game of the series and road trip. Fried did just that.

3. For six-plus innings it felt like Fried’s best day as a Yankee may be for nothing. The Yankees couldn’t score against Jack Flaherty (5.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K) and let Flaherty and Tyler Holton off the hook in the sixth inning, unable to score with runners on second and third and one out.

In the seventh, Holton quickly retired Jasson Dominguez and J.C. Escarra.

“The Yankees are a team that’s built on home runs and they have not homered in three games and 6 2/3 innings,” Michael Kay said with two outs in the seventh. “When a pitcher or pitching staff can keep them in the ballpark, you have a chance.”

After Kay finished opining, Oswaldo Cabrera singled.

The Yankees hadn’t homered since Saturday and were a few innings away from not homering in four straight games for the first time since September 2020. Rice made sure that unfortunate stat wasn’t duplicated.

Rice crushed a 1-0 pitch from Holton 419 feet over the center-field wall to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Prior to the home run, the Yankees had scored five runs in their last 34 innings. Those five runs came in three innings, so the Yankees had scored in 31 of the last 34 innings.

4. After the Rice home run, Fried put up his seventh and final zero of the day before turning the ball over to Weaver (just like I had asked for). Weaver worked around a one-out single to pitch yet another scoreless inning.

In the ninth, the Yankees scored two extremely important insurance runs as a result of some Yankees-esque defense from the Tigers. The game had an ominous feel as though it could turn into a complete letdown after the heroics from Fried and Rice if Williams were to blow the game in the ninth. And based off Williams’ early-season appearances, it certainly wasn’t out of the question.

5. Williams walked the first batter of the ninth. A walk with a four-run lead. If not for the two tack-on runs in the eighth, the Tigers would have the tying run at the plate with no outs in the ninth. Williams struck out the next two, but after a two-out single from Javier Baez (you know Williams isn’t right when Baez is getting a line-drive base off of him), he unraveled. Williams walked Trey Sweeney, threw a wild pitch to score Baez (who had taken second on defensive indifference) and allowed a single to Zach McKinstry to make it 4-3. Aaron Judge (who earlier in the game idiotically got caught in a rundown between third and home on a ball hit back to the mound) moronically threw the ball home, allowing McKinstry to go to second. With two outs in the ninth, the Tigers had the tying run on second and Aaron Boone was forced to take the ball from Williams and give it to Mark Leiter Jr. It’s bad enough Williams nearly blew a three-run lead in the ninth on Opening Day, but now he was about to blow a four-run lead, had given up a hit to Baez and was being pulled for Leiter. What a first 13 days in pinstripes.

6. Leiter got Justyn-Henry Malloy to pop up to Jazz Chisholm in shallow center to end the game. If the Yankees had lost, it would have been a loss that would be hard to top as the worst of the season even with 150 games remaining. A loss would have wasted Fried’s brilliant outing. It would have wasted Rice’s heroics. It would have extended the losing streak. It would have lingered on the plane ride, travel home and day off. It would have dropped the Yankees to .500.

7. The win wasn’t withouts its warts with Williams being the biggest. Chisholm had another hitless day and is down to .180/.255/.460. Anthony Volpe continues to morph back into his 2023-24 self (and lost the grip on the bat on two different strike 3s in the game). Dominguez had an 0-for (.205/.295/.359), and then’s there Cody Bellinger.

8. Bellinger is a problem. Normally, you would think someone being bad (.562 OPS) through seven percent of the season isn’t a big deal, but it is. It is because Bellinger is evidently going to bat second ahead of Judge or third behind him no matter what because of his veteran status, because he was the National League MVP (with the juiced baseball) six years ago and because he bats left-handed. It takes an extraordinary amount of struggling for Boone to move a veteran down in the lineup, and it’s going to take a lot for him to move Bellinger down even if it’s deserved. Here’s to Bellinger figuring it out after a day off with the familiar-for-him Giants coming to the Bronx this weekend.

9. On the positive side (aside from Fried and Rice), Judge looked like himself at the plate after a few shaky days, Paul Goldschmidt had two more hits and Cabrera had a two-hit day with the second hit coming from his “weaker” side (the right side). That hit led to him being on base when Rice blasted his two-run home run.

On Friday, Cabrera had a three-hit game then was benched on Saturday and Sunday, played on Monday and was benched again on Tuesday. With a lefty scheduled to start against the Yankees on Friday, Cabrera will likely be on the bench again. How about just letting him play every day and bat from both sides? The Yankees clearly don’t believe in Oswald Peraza (and shouldn’t believe in Pablo Reyes as even a bench option), otherwise Peraza would have played more in 2022, 2023 or 2024, so they need to stop acting like they believe in him now. Play Cabrera every day, against all starting pitchers and let him be the everyday third baseman.

10. The Yankees head home at 7-5 instead of 6-6. They head home having salvaged the third game of the series to finish the road trip at 3-3 instead of 2-4. They head home on a happy and upbeat plane rather than a somber and disappointed one. They head home to host the Giants where they will have their work cut out for them with Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb scheduled to pitch. They can’t let what happened to them against the Diamondbacks and Tigers happen to them against the Giants when facing a team’s best three starters.

1. Against the reigning American League Cy Young winner, the Yankees opened Tuesday’s game with back-to-back singles. Tarik Skubal had struggled in his first two starts of the season, and it looked like the Yankees may be able to get to him early with the heart of the order due up and a chance to give Carlos Carrasco a lead before throwing a pitch.

Instead, Aaron Judge struck out after getting ahead in the count 2-0, Jazz Chisholm hit a weak ground ball back to the mound and Anthony Volpe had an ugly at-bat for an inning-ending strikeout, and that was the game. After that first-inning jam, Skubal looked like his 2024 self, retiring 16 straight until a Paul Goldschmidt single in the sixth.

2. “He’s as good as it gets,” Aaron Bone said. “He had a good day against us today.”

A good day from Skubal is to be expected. But Casey Mize also had a good day against the Yankees the day before and Andrew Heaney had a good day against them the day before that. Add up three consecutive days of a disappearing offense and bad starting pitching and you get a three-game losing streak, which has the Yankees a loss away from falling to .500.

3. During the six shutouts innings from Skubal, Carrasco got lit up. The Tigers scored one run off of him in the second and hit three solo home runs in the span of four batters in the fourth. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings and the Yankees trailed 4-0 when he left the mound in the fifth.

“It’s imperative that he really commands all of it,” Boone said of Carrasco. “He’s gotta be near the edges.”

Ryan Yarbrough relieved Carrasco and gave up a home run to the first batter he faced to make it 5-0, and that’s how it would stay for another Yankees loss.

4. The Tigers are a problem and a horrible matchup for the Yankees. It’s why before the series, I wrote: Had the Yankees played the Tigers in the ALCS, I think it would have been problematic given their pitching staff.

Between their strong rotation, deep pitching staff and experienced manager, they are very Rays-esque. The Rays have dominated the Yankees during the Boone era and the Tigers are starting do the same, having won the last four games against the Yankees dating back to last season. I fear them as much as any team in the AL, and in a short series in October, they would be a big problem.

4. Clarke Schmidt is expected to return to the rotation next week, and there is a debate about whether it will be Carrasco or Will Warren who loses their spot. The argument for Carrasco is that he doesn’t have a minor-league option like Warren does. Umm, who cares? It’s highly unlikely Carrasco will be claimed by another team, and if he is, who cares? Does anyone want him making another start for the Yankees? In three appearances (two starts) this season, he has put 19 baserunners on in 11 2/3 innings and has allowed 10 earned runs. No, don’t let the the guy with a 7.71 ERA and 1.628 WHIP this season (and 5.39 ERA since 2021) get claimed or elect free agency!

5. The Yankees’ 1-through-3 were 6-for-12 in the game. The 4-through-9 were 0-for-20.

Clean-up hitter Chisholm’s big weekend against the Brewers is starting to fade and he’s now down to .196/.260/.500. Austin Wells’ stats are no longer being propped up by homering in the first two games of the year as he’s down to .189/.279/.432. Jasson Dominguez has yet to get going aside from a few plate appearances and sits at .222/.317/.389, though if Volpe had Dominguez’s current .706 OPS during either of the last two seasons there would already be a plaque for him in Monument Park.

7. Cody Bellinger missed another game, this time with food poisoning. Bellinger has missed three of 11 games this year and when he has played he has been bad (.233/.278/.333). He is no way deserves to be hitting second or third before or after Judge in the lineup with the way Ben Rice and Trent Grisham have been hitting, but I expect to see him back in the lineup on Wednesday hitting second or third.

8. The Yankees have a problem right now in that Bellinger is always going to play, Dominguez needs to play, Grisham is tearing the cover off of the ball and Rice is the team’s second-best hitter after Judge. You can’t sit Rice right now. You shouldn’t sit Grisham. But because none of those four play third base, someone has to sit. It may be time for Rice to start taking ground balls at third? Maybe he already is or already has? Maybe he has and he sucked at it? All I know is the Yankees are wasting a lineup spot with whichever third baseman of the day they choose and are putting someone on the bench that shouldn’t be on the bench at the moment..

9. The Yankees will face Jack Flaherty in the series finale. The last time the Yankees saw Flaherty, they chased him in the second inning of Game 5 of the World Series. Flaherty has been very good in his first two starts of the season, and given the way the Yankees offense has hit the last three days, it’s hard to feel confident with them at the moment. It’s also hard not to think they will be thinking about an afternoon getaway day game and returning home tonight with tomorrow off.

10. The series finale is the kind of start the Yankees got Max Fried for. Three straight losses and a matchup against an unimpressive offense. This is a game the Yankees need to Fried to go out there and hand the ball off to Luke Weaver and then Devin Williams with no one in between and salvage the final game of the series and road trip.

1. If a starting pitcher allows five earned runs in six innings, it equates to a 7.50 ERA. There isn’t a person who should think that’s acceptable, especially if the pitcher is making roughly $800,000 per start. But there’s one.

“I thought he threw the ball great,” Aaron Boone said of Carlos Rodon’s disastrous start in Detroit, “I really did.”

2. Last week at Yankee Stadium, Zac Gallen (6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K) “threw the ball great.” Ex-Yankee Andrew Heaney on Sunday against the Yankees (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K) “threw the ball great.” Tigers starter Casey Mize on Monday against the Yankees (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) “threw the ball great.” What Rodon did on Monday wasn’t “great.” It was abysmal. It was the type of performance Rodon has given as a Yankees more often than not.

3. “Look, he doesn’t get a call in that inning and makes the one mistake that turns into a three-run homer,” Boone said. “But really outside of that I thought he was excellent.”

Ah yes, outside of the three-run homer that decided the game, Rodon was excellent. Even if outside of the home run he allowed two other earned runs to score and an unearned one. Six runs and five earned in six innings: the definition of excellence.

4. The whining about the missed third strike call in the third inning is embarrassing. Rodon got countless fastballs outside the strike zone called in his favor early in the game. When he didn’t get a 3-2 pitch called his way in his third, it set up first and second with one out for the Tigers. (The 8- and 9-hitters were on first and second, both from walks.) Rodon bounced back to get the second out of the inning on a strikeout. He was one out away from getting out of the inning and couldn’t get it.

5. “We roll that Carlos every time,” Boone said, “we’re going to be in a good spot.”

If the Yankees allow a run per inning every start they’re going to be in a good spot? What? They did that on Monday and lost. They did it on Sunday and lost. They did it on Saturday and were fortunate the offense showed up.

6. “I thought he did a lot of really good things,” Boone said. “I thought he was in control of the game.”

Why was he in control? Because he had eight strikeouts in six innings against a weak offense? He certainly didn’t look in control when he walked the 8- and 9-hitters to start the Tigers’ third-inning rally. He didn’t look in control when he gave up the three-run home run to Andy Ibanez. He didn’t look in control when he walked the 8-hitter again in the fifth and allowed two runs to score immediately after the Yankees had gotten on the board.

In Rodon’s last start, we had to hear about how the rain and weather affected him, while Gallen tossed an all-time gem. Today, it was the wind chill impacting Rodon, while Mize continued to get out after out. There’s always an excuse with him. The weather, heckling fans, a mound visit he didn’t want, a pitch that didn’t get called his way.

7. Rodon was bad on Monday, which he usually is, but even if he had been better, it likely wouldn’t have mattered because a day after getting humiliated by Heaney in Pittsburgh, the offense gave themselves a day off in Detroit.

“I thought we were very close there to really putting together a couple of big innings,” Boone said of his offense as each delusional answer he provided Meredith Marakovits one-upped his previous one.

That will be a good name for the Boone autobiography about his time as Yankees manager whenever his time in the position ends (if it ever does).

“‘I Thought We Were Very Close:’ My Time as Yankees Manager” by Aaron Boone with Andy Martino, foreword by Brian Cashman.

8. Ben Rice reached base three times (but was also inexplicably picked off third), Aaron Judge had an RBI single and a walk and Paul Goldschmidt had two hits. Those were the offensive highlights. The Yankees had seven hits in the game and one for extra bases. Jazz Chisholm, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells at 5-6-7 combined to go 1-for-12 with five strikeouts. Cody Bellinger continued his early-season failures with runners on and Oswaldo Cabrera went 0-for-4 after being bench the last two games following his three-hit game on Friday. Jasson Dominguez didn’t play because the only prospect to get to play every day from the moment he reached the league (despite horrific results) in this era has been Volpe.

9. The Yankees’ offense scored one run and the Tigers’ defense gave them another. They were shut down by Mize, and three relievers, with Tommy Kahnle being the last of those three. Sure enough, Kahnle pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game and striking out two, while successfully mixing his fastball and changeup, after only using his changeup for an extended period of time in October, which ultimately led to the Yankees’ demise in Game 5 of the World Series. A memorable performance on consecutive days for ex-Yankees Heaney, Kahnle, Dennis Santana, Caleb Ferguson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

10. The Yankees couldn’t hit Casey Mize and now they get to face the reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on Tuesday. Carlos Carrasco will go for the Yankees in what is the biggest discrepancy in starting pitching ability you can have in a matchup this season. Aside from the ninth inning on Sunday, the offense has taken the last two days off. It would be nice if it decides to return to work on Tuesday.

1. On Friday, before the Yankees opened a three-game season in Pittsburgh, I wrote: Anything less than a series win (especially with Paul Skenes not pitching), would be a disappointment. The series wasn’t a disappointment and was successful because the Yankees did win it, but it could have been and (nearly was) so much more if they had completed their three-run, ninth-inning comeback on Sunday and finished the job with a sweep.

2. The Yankees received one strong starting pitching effort in the series and that came from Max Fried on Friday (5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR). It felt like Fried wasn’t even that good, and yet, he allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings. It’s exciting to think about how good Fried will be when he’s “on” in one of his starts, which he certainly wasn’t on Opening Day and really wasn’t against the Pirates.

Fried was the beneficiary of 20 runs from his offense in the second game of the season, and he got more than enough run support again on Friday in the Yankees’ 9-4 win.

“It’s been incredible, especially the early runs,” Fried said. “It takes a lot off me, where I know that I can be a little more aggressive and go after guys.”

Fried is the last pitcher on the Yankees who needs run support. Marcus Stroman, on the other hand, could use all the help he can get.

3. After being bad against the Brewers last weekend (4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR), Stroman was even worse against the Pirates (4 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K). In two starts, he’s pitched 8 2/3 innings, allowing seven earned runs for a nice, tidy 7.27 ERA.

In his start on Saturday, after giving back a two-run lead and then some with four runs against in the fourth, he was saved by a six-run outburst from the offense the following inning. I thought with a four-run lead Aaron Boone would send Stroman back out for the fifth to try to squeeze every last out of him, but instead, he did the right thing and pulled him, preventing further damage and the Yankees were able to coast to a 10-4 win.

I don’t think Boone pulled Stroman because he recognized it as the smart thing to do to win the game. I think he pulled him because the Yankees are going to do everything they can to prevent Stroman’s innings clause for 2026 from kicking in. If Stroman throws 140 innings this season, he is guaranteed $18 million for next season. With 8 2/3 innings through two starts, Stroman is on pace for 139 innings if he were to make 32 starts. For as bad as he has been, there is a very realistic path to him reaching that number even with four- and 4 2/3-innings starts. That means Boone will always have a short leash and an early hook for Stroman this season, and that’s a good thing.

4. Will Warren had himself a Stroman-esque start on Sunday: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 4 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Warren retired the first eight batters of the game before unraveling in the fourth.

“There was a lot of good in there,” Boone said of Warren, “mixed with little spots where he lost it.”

I would say it was a big spot where he lost it: with two outs and no one on in the fourth. From that moment on, Warren went walk, single, double, single, strikeout, groundout, triple, sacrifice fly, single, double, strikeout. I thought Warren was going to be good and then he walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who doesn’t walk) with two outs to start the third-inning rally and let Kiner-Falefa crush a first-pitch, RBI double to the gap in the fourth.

Kiner-Falefa wasn’t the only ex-Yankee to have big day against his former team, keeping up with a tradition that seemingly will never end (except for Nestor Cortes in the second game of the season, though Cortes is now on the injured list with the same injury that kept him out for most of September and most of October last season before Boone decided he was the best option to try to get Freddie Freeman out in Game 1 of the World Series). Joining Kiner-Falefa in the series finale was the pitching trio of Andrew Heaney, Dennis Santana and Caleb Ferguson, all former Yankees pitchers who were all designated for assignment by the team. Heaney had a 7.32 ERA in 35 2/3 innings as a Yankee, Santana had a 6.26 in 27 1/3 innings and Ferguson had a 5.13 in 33 1/3 innings. The trio combined to throw nine innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 5-4, 11-inning loss on Sunday.

5. The Yankees’ issues with left-handed pitching have been pronounced through nine games as every opposing manager is doing what he can to throw as many lefties as possible against the Yankees. This isn’t a small sample size issue either. When you can’t hit Heaney (who struck out 10 over seven innings) and Ferguson (who pitched around the automatic runner against the heart of the order in the 10th), it’s a big-time problem.

After staging an improbable comeback down three runs in the ninth, the Yankees were set up to take the lead in the 10th with Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm due up. They had used Luke Weaver in the eighth, had him available for a second inning, if needed, and also had Devin Williams available. The extra-inning setup was heavily advantageous for them. And they pissed it away.

With the automatic runner (Paul Goldschmidt) on second to start the 10th, Bellinger got ahead of Ferguson 3-0. If Bellinger were to walk, the Pirates would be forced to pitch to Judge. Bellinger took the 3-0 pitch down the middle and then swung at a slider low, away and in the other batter’s box for strike 2. It was a selfish, undisciplined swing decision from Bellinger. Now at 3-2, he would need to at least put the ball in play to move Goldschmidt to third. He did that, but the Pirates, as expected, sent Judge to first.

Then came Chisholm, who is about the last Yankee you want up in a situational hitting scenario. After putting himself in a hole, Chisholm eventually put the ball in play, but it was a weak flare just past the infield that was easily catchable and too shallow for Goldschmidt to tag up on. Anthony Volpe ended the inning with a groundout.

6. Weaver made quick work of the Pirates in the 10th, but the Yankees couldn’t capitalize on a Pirates error in the 11th with the automatic runner on third and one out. In the bottom of the 11th, the Pirates stole third with one out against Williams, and idiotically Boone let Williams pitch to Tommy Pham, the Pirates one veteran hitter, with first and second base open and Pham hit the ball to left field for the walk-off win.

“It was a little bit of a tough day for us offensively,” Boone said, but what a great rally there in the ninth to get us back into it.”

It was a great rally, ruined by the Yankees’ situational hitting in extras. There’s a reason the Yankees have been one of the league’s worst teams in extra innings since the automatic runner was implemented five years ago: a combination of bad situational hitters and an uninspiring manager. The Pirates stole third with one out in the 11th, knowing they were unlikely to get a hit off of Williams to win the game. The Yankees? They waited around for a hit that never came and wasn’t going to come once Judge was intentionally walked.

7. Williams’ numbers were so good with the Brewers that he had become the best reliever in baseball, at least on paper. But so far, as a Yankee, he has been extremely underwhelming. Maybe that’s because it’s not ideal to have your closer’s best pitch be a changeup. He gets a pass for now, considering his Opening Day debacle was his first appearance with his new team in freezing weather, then he missed time with the birth of his child, and had a long layoff. I expected him to be more unhittable than he has been, and not Tommy Kahnle 2.0.

8. Trent Grisham has been Juan Soto 2.0 through the first week-and-a-half of the season. Grisham is hitting .455/.538/.909 with three home runs, nine RBIs, three walks and only four strikeouts. He homered twice on Saturday and drove in the game-tying runs in the ninth on Sunday. He has already passed Alex Verdugo’s 2024 season in terms of WAR despite this season being only six percent complete and despite Grisham having only started only five of the Yankees’ nine games.

9. After a big first two games as a Yankee, Bellinger is 2-for-19 with six strikeouts sandwiched around missing a couple of games with a stiff back on Friday and Saturday. In the last four games hitting in front of Judge, he’s 2-for-16 with two walks and seven strikeouts. The Yankees are 1-3 in those games. If you’re going to hit in front of Judge, you have to hit, especially since you’re getting pitches to hit.

10. It would be good if Bellinger started hitting in Detroit because the Yankees are going to need him. They are going to need all of the offense they can get (and will continue to need it until Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil return) as they face Casey Mize (5 2/3 shutout innings in his first start this season), Tarik Skubal (reigning Cy Young winner) and Jack Flaherty (typically tough except for Game 5 of the World Series) over the next three frigid afternoons. They will counter with Carlos Rodon (5.48 ERA in 13 career starts against the Tigers), Carlos Carrasco (I don’t think anyone will ever feel good about him starting) and Max Fried (the Yankees’ only trustworthy starter).

The Yankees struggled with Detroit last season and then the Tigers miraculously made the playoffs, knocked off the Astros and took the Guardians to do-or-die Game 5 before their season ended. The Tigers paved the path to the World Series for the Yankees. (Had the Yankees played the Tigers in the ALCS, I think it would have been problematic given their pitching staff.) This is going to be a tough series.