New York Yankees Ace Has Potential No-Hitter Taken Away in Controversial Fashion

This New York Yankees ace may not have ended up with a no-hitter anyway, but a scoring change sucked out the drama.

Apr 20, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried (54) leaves a game against the Tampa Bay Rays in the eighth inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

For New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried, Sunday was a lot to be excited about in his latest start of the season.

He was terrific. He went 7.2 innings, gave up two hits and two walks while he struck out two. The Yankees made two errors behind him, but New York got out of Tampa with a 4-0 victory as they beat the Tampa Bay Rays as their franchise’s spring training home, George Steinbrenner Field.

For a while, it looked even better. Through seven innings, Fried — the left-hander New York signed to a $218 million deal this offseason — was working on a no-hitter.

Seven complete innings, no hits. That’s the kind of stuff that starting pitchers and fans love.

Only thing is, when Fried headed to the mound to start the eighth inning he didn’t have a no-hitter anymore.

How? For that, one must go back to the sixth inning.

In that frame, Fried faced Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson, who was called up this weekend. The Rays prospect is considered among the fastest players in professional baseball.

Simpson, a left-handed hitter, pulled Fried’s offering and hit a sharp ground ball toward first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who was playing well off the bag. He booted the baseball and Simpson reached base. The official scorekeeper called it an error.

In the official scorer's estimation, it was "very apparent" Chandler Simpson would have beaten this out if Paul Goldschmidt had handled it cleanly, so it is now a hit. pic.twitter.com/rgAqgdL4Fr

— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) April 20, 2025

In some cases, plays like that will be reviewed after the official decision is made. It’s not uncommon. In most cases, the decisions don’t get changed. This one did.

By the eighth inning, when Fried was heading to the mound, the official scorekeeper made the error a hit, saying that it was “very apparent” Simpson would have beaten out any throw from Goldschmidt had he fielded it cleanly, per MLB.com.

It was stunning to say the least. Yankees TV announcers spent more than a minute talking about the scoring change after it was made.

.@RealMichaelKay & @FlavaFraz21 on the scoring change that ended Max Fried's bid for a no-hitter (shortly before he allowed a hit) #YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/CS50FkRbMi

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) April 20, 2025

For all the discussion, it would not have mattered. Jake Mangum singled in the eighth inning to make the scoring decision academic.

But it was one of those quirky baseball moments that momentarily put Yankees fans up in arms.

Meanwhile, Fried is pitching like an early candidate for the American League Cy Young award. He is now 4-0 after Sunday’s victory. He has a 1.42 ERA and he induced 12 groundouts against three flyouts in 102 pitches.

The Yankees face the Cleveland Guardians starting on Monday.