Yankees at Rays: Max Fried vs Nick Martinez

Q: What is Max Fried's pitching record this season?

Max Fried is making his fourth start of the season, with his most recent outing resulting in a loss against the Miami Marlins.

Q: How many games have the Yankees lost in a row?

The Yankees have lost three consecutive games, including two at home against the Athletics and one against the Rays.

Q: What are Max Fried's pitching statistics this season?

Through 20 innings this season, Max Fried has varied his pitch types effectively, minimizing hard contact from opponents.

Q: Who are the Yankees playing against tonight?

The Yankees are playing against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg tonight.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 05: Max Fried #54 of the New York Yankees pitches during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at Yankee Stadium on April 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Suddenly, the Yankees have dropped three-straight contests after losing two games at home against the Athletics then going down to defeat last night in St. Pete for the series opener. The good news is New York sends its ace to the mound tonight. The bad news is said ace cannot hit.* The worse news is neither can the rest of team, with a couple of exceptions.

*Well, he did win the last NL Silver Slugger for a pitcher, but the Yankees will stick with a DH.

This will be Max Fried’s fourth start of the season. The southpaw is coming off his worst outing thus far, one that was still perfectly cromulent, as Fried allowed three runs over 6.2 innings against Miami in an eventual 7-6 loss. Through 20 innings, Fried is varying his pitches with the effect of minimizing hard contact. He’s thrown each of his four-seamer, sinker, cutter, curve, change, and sweeper between 10 percent and 23 percent of the time. Good luck sitting on any one pitch. Unsurprisingly, opponents’ average exit velocity, barrel percentage, and hard-hit percentage all rest comfortably in the red on Statcast.

Veteran right-hander Nick Martinez gets the start for the Rays, his third this season. Like Fried, he’s thrown six different pitches at least somewhat frequently this season. Also, like Fried, the results have been good. Through 12 innings, Martinez has a 2.25 ERA and his Statcast has a bunch of red. One thing that jumps out: Yankee hitters will need to earn their way on base. Martinez has only issued one free pass so far, though he’s also only struck out seven. We should see balls in play tonight.

It might not matter how well Fried pitches if the Yankee lineup doesn’t figure it out. The bottom of the order has been a wasteland in the opening weeks. Tonight, Jazz Chisholm Jr. boasts the best OPS among the hitters in those slots, with a putrid .469 mark. Exacerbating the issue is that the top of the lineup is not hitting to the back of their baseball cards either, except for Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton, though the latter’s power is absent in the opening weeks of the year. Cody Bellinger, for example, has four hits in his last seven games. Aaron Judge has a singular home run in that stretch. And Trent Grisham has a .237 SLG this season. All told, the Yankees enter tonight with a .199 team batting average through 13 games, and five runs scored in their last three.

Let’s get this turned around. A couple of crooked numbers in the run column tonight for the Yankees would be the bee’s knees.

How to Watch:

Location: Tropicana Field — St. Petersburg, FL

First Pitch: 6:10 pm EDT

TV broadcast: YES/Rays.TV

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 / WDAE 95.7 FM, WQBN/1300AM

Online stream: MLB Network (out-of-market-only)

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