Yankees' Max Fried tosses another gem in shutout of Mariners

SEATTLE — Max Fried didn’t have anything close to his best stuff in last Wednesday’s season-opener in San Francisco but still threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings.

“That’s what an ace looks like when he’s grinding,’’ Aaron Boone said afterward.

There was no grinding for Fried on Tuesday night.

Just an ace pitching like one.

Dominant from his first pitch until his last, Fried, backed by red-hot DH Giancarlo Stanton, threw seven scoreless innings in the Yankees' 5-0 victory over the Mariners in front of 32,790 at T-Mobile Park.

“Just dominance. Continued from last year,” Stanton, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to lead the offense, said of Fried. “He’s been unreal.”

The Yankees (4-1), who have thrown three shutouts so far and matched the major-league record set by the 1943 Cardinals by allowing just three runs total through a team’s first five games, wrap up their season-opening six-game West Coast trip Wednesday afternoon here. The return to the Bronx for the home opener Friday afternoon against the Marlins.

Fried (2-0), who escaped a first-and-third-one-out jam last Wednesday, and his seven-pitch arsenal faced little traffic Tuesday night. He allowed three hits — two of those in his seventh and final inning — and one walk in an efficient 90-pitch outing (60 of those pitches were strikes).

“He had all of his pitches going from the get-go,” catcher J.C. Escarra said. “He was hitting all of his spots.”

Fried struck out two and walked a batter in the first and did not allow another baserunner until Josh Naylor’s two-out single in the fourth gave the Mariners (3-3) their first hit. Fried retired nine straight after his two-out walk to Julio Rodriguez in the first inning and seven straight after the Naylor single.

“Was able to throw a bunch of different pitches for strikes and worked really well with J.C. today,” Fried said. “That’s a good lineup over there, so you know you just have to keep changing speeds and putting the ball in good locations.”

The outing could not have been much different from his last one.

“There weren’t times where I was just fighting for strikes. I felt like I actually was able to locate today, which made things a lot easier,” Fried said. “You have to go out there and really execute against a team like that. That’s a really good club over there.”

The Yankees, who outhit the Mariners 9-4, were led offensively by the 36-year-old Stanton, who is off to a 10-for-20 start at the plate.

“He’s been one of the best hitters in the game for a long time,” said Fried, who spent the first eight years of his career with Atlanta before signing with the Yankees before last season. “To see him healthy and just out there and ready to just do damage, it’s not a fun at-bat up there when you’re facing him when he’s locked in like this. I’m really glad I’m on this side and not the other side.”

The first five games have been the continuation of what Stanton did during six weeks of spring training.

“Just staying back, being on time for heaters and keeping my barrel through the zone as much as possible, trying to swing at strikes,” Stanton said.

Stanton was part of a top of the order that carried the day for the Yankees. Trent Grisham went 2-for-4 with a run, Cody Bellinger went 2-for-3 with two runs and Ben Rice went 2-for-2 with two walks, two runs and an RBI. Aaron Judge’s slow start continued as the rightfielder went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. The three-time AL MVP, who has won the award each of the last two seasons, is 3-for-20 with 10 strikeouts to start the year.

The Yankees scored twice in the top of the first against righthander Logan Gilbert, the Mariners' Opening Day starter, getting an RBI double by Rice and an RBI single from Stanton. Gilbert allowed five runs, seven hits and three walks over 5 1/3 innings in which he struck out six. The Yankees tacked on the other three runs in the sixth, the highlights being Stanton’s RBI double and an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr.

That was more than enough for Fried. On this night, the first inning was.

“That was,” Boone said, “an ace in control of the game.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.