Aaron Judge isn’t the only star Yankee with something to prove in the playoffs this time around.
Given his rough recent history in the playoffs, it may be fair to ask: Which Max Fried will show up on Tuesday night against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the wild-card series at Yankee Stadium?
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The left-hander who has looked every bit like the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting when they signed him to an eight-year, $218 million deal in the offseason — the largest deal ever given to a lefty?
Or the Fried who’s been a mess in his three previous playoff outings — all with Atlanta?
In those three starts — two versus the Phillies and another in San Diego, spanning three different postseasons — Fried allowed 12 earned runs in just 9 ¹/₃ innings (11.57 ERA).
Those flops came after one of Fried’s greatest triumphs: When he pitched six scoreless innings in Game 6 to help clinch the 2021 World Series against the Astros.
“Any experience you can use to your advantage,’’ Fried said Monday following the team’s workout at the Stadium. “It’s how you learn from it and go forward. I’ll be leaning on that, but this is its own game. A new season [with] new circumstances.”
Fried is right about that.
The 31-year-old set career bests in wins, innings pitched, games started and strikeouts. And he bounced back from an ugly midseason stretch in which he put up a 6.80 ERA during an eight-start span from July 1 to Aug. 16.
Over his final seven starts of the regular season, Fried had a 1.55 ERA and the Yankees went 6-1.
But little of that will be remembered if Tuesday doesn’t go according to plan.
“There’s no guarantee I’m going to have another start,” Fried said. “So from here on out, this could be the last one. We’re going to kind of empty the tank and leave everything that we have out there.”
He was expected to be paired with Gerrit Cole at the top of the Yankees rotation before Cole was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery in spring training.
Fried and Carlos Rodón helped lead the rotation — along with the workmanlike Will Warren — and the Red Sox will be Fried’s next major test.
“He’s had an outstanding season,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s been a great pitcher in the league now for a while. That being said, he was one of the big free agents out there and to come to New York, that can be a challenging, daunting thing. He’s handled it so well, so seamlessly.’’
Tuesday, though, will be different.
Even for a pitcher in his ninth season in the majors and who won a World Series title with Atlanta in 2021, pitching in The Bronx in the playoffs is different.
“I’ve never experienced a postseason at Yankee Stadium,” Fried said. “I expect it to be electric.”