AL WILD CARD SERIES: RED SOX VS YANKEES

September 30, 2026

Max Fried

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Postgame Press Conference

Yankees - 9, Red Sox - 2

Q. It seems at times the game was a grind for you, you weren't at your perfect sharpest, but you then walked in, especially getting those called third strikes early on. Was it just a matter of fighting until it started to zone in?

MAX FRIED: Yeah, I mean, it definitely wasn't sharp from the get-go, but just wanted to challenge them, not try to give any free passes, especially in the first inning. And I was able to make some good pitches and get a couple of strikeouts and be able to kind of collect myself and be able to go out and just try to get outs and get into the flow of the game.

Q. Can you just talk about the state of the rotation, the pitching staff as a whole right now going into the next series?

MAX FRIED: Definitely in a good spot. We've got everyone healthy and kind of we're nice and lined up going into the next series. We're excited about it.

Q. In recent years, we've seen teams increasingly not use their starting pitchers deep in games in the playoffs. You've had two games now where you threw 100 pitches; Cam threw close to 120. How meaningful is it going to be for this staff to be able to keep going deep in games throughout the postseason?

MAX FRIED: I think it's just whoever is going to take the ball and keep us in games to give our offense a chance to come alive and score some runs to be able to win. Sometimes it's going to be 100, 120 pitches. Sometimes it's not.

But we have a good group in there that are really focused on just winning the game and putting the team in front of themselves right now. So we're excited about going out, winning and facing the Rays the next series.

Q. Can you describe the satisfaction of winning the series? I know you've done this plenty in your career, but winning the series and advancing.

MAX FRIED: Being able to celebrate with your teammates after a playoff series win is, it doesn't get old. This is what we start practicing in February for. This is where we want to be. So just about playing our game, having fun and hopefully we've got a couple more of these that we can do.

Q. When you arrived on the mound, was it the most intense atmosphere you've ever experienced?

MAX FRIED: I mean, anytime you take the mound in a playoff game, it's extremely intense. I don't know how to compare it to previous ones, but you know that it's an important game. You have an opportunity to close out the series, and you've got to make sure that you're on your game, because they're fighting for their season.

I wanted to make sure that I was going out there and just laying it on the line and trying to, I guess in terms of throwing the first punch, rather than trying to feel things out.