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.

Fried scattered five hits on the evening while issuing a pair of walks. All of the scoring done against him came in the third inning as MJ Melendez swatted a solo homer and Bobby Witt Jr. added a run-scoring double. After that, he locked in and blanked the Royals the rest of the way. Fried got 12 whiffs on 94 pitches on the night, posting a solid CSW of 30 percent. He now sits at 3-0 on the season with a brilliant 1.88 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and a 28/5 K/BB ratio over 24 innings. The left-hander will square up against the Rays his next time out in Tampa Bay on Sunday.