Ben Rice came through with the biggest swing of the season for the New York Yankees on Tuesday night, launching what turned out to be a game-winning home run against the Toronto Blue Jays. Yankees fans hoped that New York finally beating the AL East leaders would signal the start of a season-defining turnaround. Instead, Wednesday's game in Toronto turned out to be more of the same. Defensive miscues defined an ugly 8-4 loss, but Max Fried's blister scare loomed large as well.
Fried was pushed back to Wednesday for two reasons. Having him pitch against the Blue Jays made sense when the Yankees are chasing them in the division, but also, the Yankees wanted to give Fried extra time to fully recover from the blister issues that plagued him at the end of the first half.
max’s pinky is bleeding. if u ignore everything around wat happened, this visual goes so hard pic.twitter.com/yfTh0fz4Rz
— max fried respecter (@jonmoxIeys) July 24, 2025
Yes, that's blood on Fried's pinky. He was able to get through 5.1 innings, but he did not look like himself on the mound or in the field, and he was seen rubbing his finger on his shirt numerous times.
Losing the game, especially in the fashion that they did, really stings, but Fried's injury scare makes it even worse.
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Yankees recent loss is even worse than fans could've expected
Yankees fans could've dealt with another frustrating loss. It feels as if every loss they've had, especially against the Blue Jays, has been aided by self-inflicted miscues. Having just one more hit (5) than error (4), though, while also dealing with an injury scare to their ace, is just a brutal result.
It's officially concerning now. Fried's blister woes have persisted for a couple of weeks now, and only seem to be getting worse. At this point, the Yankees don't have much of a choice but to put him on the IL. Their rotation can't really afford Fried sitting in the dugout for at least two weeks, but the last thing this team needs is for his blister woes to be a factor in September or October.
Any loss, even one as frustrating as Wednesday's, is easy to swallow. Fried having blister issues makes it much worse, and is much harder for the already short-handed Yankees to recover from.