The Yankees got through the first series of the second half of the season by winning two out of three at the Atlanta Braves, grabbing a 3-2 win on Sunday to keep pace in the AL playoff race.
And, for the time being, the news on the starting pitching front is at least not looking dire, as both Max Fried and Cam Schlittler tossed successful bullpens over the weekend and are set to make their next starts when the Yanks play a three-game series in Toronto against the Blue Jays.
"He should be good to go," manager Aaron Boone said after Fried's successful bullpen session on Sunday. "I feel good about it."
Fried, who is scheduled to pitch the third game of the series on Wednesday, left his last start on July 12 against the Cubs after allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks in 3.0 innings when a blister formed on his left index finger. A blister on that same finger had sent the left-hander to the IL on three different occasions, raising fears of a similar fate. But that was quelled on Sunday.
In his 20 starts before the break, Fried has been everything that he was billed as and more, pitching to a 2.43 ERA and 1.008 WHIP in 122 innings with 113 strikeouts to 27 walks.
Schlittler tossed his bullpen Saturday and will be good to start Tuesday's game after the right-hander experienced “upper-arm soreness” that sent him for an MRI and was the reason he did not start the series opener in Atlanta. The 24-year-old, the Yanks' 10th-rated prospect per MLB Pipeline, tossed 5.1 innings and allowed three runs on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in his big league debut earlier this month against Seattle.
And on the diamond in Sunday's win over the Braves, right-hander Marcus Stroman delivered his fourth-straight solid outing since returning from the injured list, allowing just one run on five hits over 6.0 innings with four strikeouts.
“He continued to do a really good job of mixing and matching and staying unpredictable, using all his pitches, using both sides of the plate,” Boone said.
"That's four starts where he's given us a really good chance to win ballgames, and that's all you can ask," he added. "In a lot of ways, he's had his back against the wall here a little bit, and he's come out and delivered."
After allowing 12 runs over 9.1 innings in his first three starts before injury, Stroman has allowed just seven runs in 21 innings. The veteran dealt with a rough first season in pinstripes last year, followed by an offseason of uncertainty and trade rumors, and the possibility of being shipped over to the bullpen before injuries thrust him into the rotation, appears to be pitching with even more of an edge of late.
"He's pitching like there's a lot on the line, and there is," Boone said. "He's probably been counted out by a lot of people. And I'm sure he's felt that [chip on his shoulder] throughout his career. He's always kinda had that edge to him."
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