Max Fried outduels high school teammate Jack Flaherty, helps Yankees beat Tigers 4-3 to avoid sweep

DETROIT (AP) — Max Fried threw seven scoreless innings to outduel high school teammate Jack Flaherty, Ben Rice hit a two-run homer in the seventh and AL MVP Aaron Judge drove in two more runs to help the New York Yankees hold off the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Wednesday.

The Tigers loaded the bases against Devin Williams with two outs in the ninth, scored one run on a wild pitch and chased the righty on Zach McKinstry's two-run single to pull within a run.

Mark Leiter Jr. entered and ended the threat, getting Justyn-Henry Malloy out on a game-ending fly for his first save.

New York, which avoided getting swept in the three-game series, stopped a three-game losing streak and snapped Detroit's five-game winning streak.

Fried (1-1) gave up five hits and had 11 strikeouts, two short of the career high he set last June at Boston.

Flaherty, who attended Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles with Fried, struck out nine and gave up three hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings.

Tyler Holton (1-1) allowed two runs on thee hits over 1 2/3 innings.

The Yankees scored some add-on runs that they needed in the ninth, taking a 4-0 lead on Judge's a two-run single following second baseman Colt Keith's fielding error and catcher Dillon Dingler failing to catch foul popups on consecutive pitches.

Dingler played in place of catcher Jake Rogers, who was put on the 10-day injured list with an oblique injury and is expected to be out for about a month.

Key moment

Holton served up Rice’s homer to right-center on a 90-mph sinker, breaking a scoreless tie against a pitcher who gave up just seven home runs last year in 66 appearances.