Max Fried lost a no-hitter in the eighth inning when the official scorer changed an earlier decision from an error to a hit while the Yankees took down the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 on Sunday afternoon.
With New York’s southpaw cruising, Rays rookie speedster Chandler Simpson hit a grounder in the hole between first and second that clanged off the glove of Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt with one out in the sixth inning.
Official scorer Bill Mathews initially labeled the play an error, but changed it to a hit with Fried’s no-hitter still intact, and just as he was about to throw his first pitch in the eighth inning.
Mathews later said that he changed the decision after watching multiple replays, which deemed that Simpson would have beaten out the play to first even if Goldschmidt fielded it cleanly.
Jake Mangum helped avoid any additional controversy when he led the eighth off with a clean single.
Fried went 7.2 innings scoreless, allowing those two hits with two strikeouts and two walks.
The Yankees (14-8) received solo home runs from Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, and Austin Wells as they won for the fifth time in their last six games. Bellinger had a second RBI on the day when he grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Oswaldo Cabrera in the third.
