The 31-year-old southpaw allowed just one hit in the ballgame — a one-out single by Jose Caballero in the fifth inning — while issuing a pair of walks and hitting a batter. The Rays never even had a player reach third base against him in the contest. Fried generated 11 swings and misses on 92 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 32 percent. Now 6-0 on the season, he’ll carry a minuscule 1.01 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and a 39/11 K/BB ratio (44 2/3 innings) into Wednesday’s battle against the Padres. The Yankees’ prized off-season addition is looking like the early favorite to win the Cy Young award in the American League.

The left-hander struck out three and walked two on the day, posting a 21 percent whiff rate and 28 percent CSW on the day. Fried has made some minor movement tweaks to his fastballs this season, taking off movement on this sinker but adding movement to his cutter. The adjustments have dropped his swing-and-miss on those pitches a bit this season, but they’ve been more effective at inducing weak contact. Overall, the strikeouts haven’t been there for Fried so far this season, but that’s about the only complaint you can make. He’s a must-start in any matchup, including against Tampa Bay next week.

Persistent rain, and possible thunderstorms, in the New York City area take one of Saturday’s marquee pitching matchups between Fried and a resurgent Kevin Gausman off a jam-packed slate. It’ll be made up as a doubleheader on Sunday with Fried and Gausman likely to take the ball at some point during the twin bill.