Yankees survive doubleheader split as Fried makes his return

Wednesday was supposed to be a get-well day at Yankee Stadium. Instead it turned into a doubleheader with two completely different moods, and only one of them ended the way the Bronx wanted. Game 1 had Gerrit Cole doing Gerrit Cole things early, blowing fastballs and knucklecurves past the Pirates lineup and looking every bit the ace who's carried this staff for years.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

Fastball. Changeup. Knucklecurve. Just about as good as Cole can look through 3 innings

It didn't last. Nick Gonzales and the Pirates found the barrel against Cole in the middle innings, chipping away at what had been a dominant start and turning a laugher-in-progress into a fight. Cole still racked up strikeouts by the bushel, but the Pirates offense kept scratching, and New York found itself chasing the game it had controlled early.

Ben Rice bailed the Yankees out in the 7th, launching a three-run homer that tied the score and sent the dugout into a frenzy. It was the kind of moment that gets a fan base's hopes up in a hurry.

Eric Hubbs

@BarstoolHubbs

I don't know where my life would be without Ben Rice. It may not still be going. I love him.

But the good vibes didn't hold. Jasson Dominguez chipped in a run to put the Yankees briefly ahead, yet the Pirates answered late and the game slipped away in extras, a finish that had Eric Hubbs venting afterward about a Yankees offense that let David Bednar's bullpen mates and the rest of Pittsburgh's staff off the hook. "Personally didn't love how that game unfolded" and "Letting Keller get through 5 scoreless innings is unacceptable" summed up the mood in the aftermath of a game the Yankees had chances to put away and didn't.

Then came Game 2, and with it, the reason the whole day mattered beyond one result. Max Fried, out since mid-May with a bone bruise in his left elbow, skipped his final rehab tune-up and jumped straight into the big-league rotation for the nightcap. The move was a calculated risk for a Yankees front office that has more than $200 million still committed to him on an eight-year deal, but it paid off immediately: Fried shut the Pirates out for 5 innings and helped New York close the doubleheader with a win, exactly the boost a rotation that's leaned hard on Cole all year needed.

Marty Mush

@martymush

Max Fried being back is so huge and great win by the Yankees. This is a classy organization and team

Split the doubleheader, and you split the storylines: a bullpen-and-offense problem that still needs solving, and a rotation that just got a lot deeper. Fried's next few starts will say a lot about whether the Yankees can trust his elbow the rest of the way, but for one night at least, his return was the best thing that happened at the Stadium all day.