SI

Yankees Announcer Had Furious Rant After Max Fried Lost No-Hitter Between Innings

That’s one way to lose your no-hitter.

Tyler Lauletta

New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried leaves a game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried leaves a game against the Tampa Bay Rays. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
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Heading into the eighth inning of Sunday’s game between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, it looked as though New York ace Max Fried had a no-hitter bid alive with six outs left.

Unfortunately for him, it turns out the Rays were able to record a hit before he even reached the mound for the eighth.

As the broadcast returned to cover the final two innings of action, announcer Michael Kay informed the viewing public that Fried’s bid for a no-hitter had been called off after the game’s official scorer changed a decision made earlier in the day.

“You see the line, and no you didn’t miss a batter. I am absolutely flabbergasted ladies and gentlemen,” Kay said. “The official scorer here at Steinbrenner Field, a man by the name of Bill Matthews has changed the Simpson E-3 into a hit while the Yankees were in the dugout. Just, unfathomable. You call it when it happens. You don’t wait three innings for it to go by, it’s just unbelievable.”

The broadcast then showed Matthews, with Kay saying, “He’s going to have a lot of questions thrown at him, and he’s going to have to give some pretty good answers. I can’t believe that this has happened.”

The play in question came in the sixth inning when Rays centerfielder Chandler Simpson reached first base after grounding a ball hard into the infield. Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt couldn’t field the ball, and the resulting play was initially ruled an error before the official change.

In real-time, it’s a call that could’ve gone either way, but probably leans hit. That said, once it’s been ruled an error for two innings, it feels tough to go back and say “actually, nevermind,” and that’s before you take into account that there was a no-hitter on the line.

Fans following the action online let their outrage be heard.

Fried’s sudden lack of a no-hitter was not the only strange call of the day, as umpires also ruled what looked like a clear home run from Aaron Judge to be a foul ball.

Despite the calls going against them, the Yankees secured a 4–0 win over the Rays to move to 14–8 on the season.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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