Fried punched out four batters on the evening and didn’t walk a batter. The Royals scratched out a run against him in the second inning as Jac Caglianone plated a run with a ground out, then Jonathan India swatted a solo homer in the sixth inning. That was the extent of the damage. The 31-year-old southpaw generated 12 swings and misses on 91 pitches on the night — eight of them on his fastball — while posting a CSW of 23 percent. Now 9-1 on the season, he’ll bring a stellar 1.84 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and an 81/18 K/BB ratio (88 innings) into Sunday’s showdown against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The 31-year-old southpaw piled up seven strikeouts on the evening, needing 103 pitches (62 strikes) to navigate his six scoreless frames. The biggest threat against him came in the opening inning as an infield single and a walk put two men on with two outs but Fried rallied to get Carlos Santana to pop out to first base to end the threat. He generated 17 swings and misses on the night — nine of those on his fastball — while posting a CSW of 34 percent. Fried has been absolutely dominant through his first 13 starts for the Yankees, going 8-1 with a 1.78 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and a 77/18 K/BB ratio across 81 innings. He’ll do battle against the Royals in Kansas City his next time out on Wednesday.

Fried had been stuck at 6-0 for three weeks now, even though he allowed a total of four runs over 18 innings in his previous three starts. This finally makes him 7-0 with a 1.29 ERA. He is 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA lifetime at Coors Field. Expectations are that he’ll pitch in L.A. against the Dodgers next time out.