Yankee bullpen can’t hold off Marlins’ comeback, New York loses series finale

Apr 5, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone signals to the bullpen as pitcher Max Fried (54) leaves the game against the Miami Marlins during the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images | John Jones-Imagn Images And on the third start did his ERA rise. Yes, Max Fried finally allowed a man to score, indeed early in Sunday’s rain-delayed series finale with the Marlins.

The game started three and a half hours after the scheduled first pitch time, and maybe that delay took a little off Fried’s game. His control wasn’t sparkling, but the Yankee offense was able to pick up for that early snafu…but the bullpen couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain. The Yankees have lost for the second time this year, 7-6 your final.

Naturally it was old friend Austin Slater — er, old acquaintance —, he of the sub-. 100 OPS, that reached in the first and came around to score, the first such player to do so against Fried in 2026. Nobody is going to be on it every single day, but you could tell that for the second time in three starts Fried wasn’t quite what you’d expect him to be, especially with his fastball offerings: There’s far more easy takes here than we’re used to seeing with Fried, and when he uses his fastball early in counts to set up the four other, more “junky” pitches he uses later in the count, throwing fastballs for balls gets him into 1-0 or 2-1 holes, rather than spotting himself an early strike.

We then are left with hitters in hitters’ counts and throwing more pitches than we’d like to see. The Marlins got to Fried twice more in his outing, and were on the verge of tying things up when home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez calling Marlin Connor Norby safe on a contact play at home. Fortunately we have the benefit of review: If nothing else the Yankees can return their own firepower, and Ben Rice was able to do just that in the bottom half of the first: View Link Rice’s all-world contact quality also helped the Yankees push across what would be a very needed insurance run, this time in the third inning with two men on once again: View Link No RBI here for Rice, but if that ball’s not 98 off the bat, maybe Norby is able to handle it cleaner and get off a better throw.