Yankees' Max Fried loses no-hit bid vs. Rays when official scorer changes decision in 8th inning

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Max Fried had no idea he was working on a no-hit bid and didn't realize he lost it when the official scorer changed a decision as he was about to start the eighth inning.

“I’m just glad that I didn’t have to worry about that,” he said after l eading the New York Yankees over the Tampa Bay Rays 4-0 Sunday.

Fried improved to 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA in his first season after signing a $218 million, eight-year contract with the Yankees as a free agent.

Speedy rookie Chandler Simpson hit a grounder into the hole between first and second with one out in the sixth and reached when the ball bounced off the glove of first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Official scorer Bill Mathews at first called the play an error.

Fried was hitless through seven innings and was about to throw his first pitch of the eighth when Mathews announced he changed the decision to an error. Mathews said he looked at several video replays and determined Simpson would have beaten any throw to first.

Jake Mangum then led off the eighth with a clean single to center on Fried's fifth pitch of the inning. Fried allowed two hits in 7 2/3 innings, throwing 102 pitches.

Fried's career high is 110 pitches in 2022.

“I’m going to keep the ball and want to keep pitching as long as I can until the manager comes and takes the ball from me,” Fried said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone hadn't been aware of the scoring change at the time.

“I thought the first hit was the first hit in the eighth there,” he said. “I saw afterward that they had changed it. Look, we’re not going to beat him to the bag, so I get it, but it makes it a little bit dicey when it’s within the game — or obviously with a no-hitter going on, but the reality is it was a hit.”

Boone was surprised the initial call was an error.

“I scratch my head at the official scorers nightly,” he said. “They throw an error up on the board at Yankee Stadium and then we go to these other places and they can fire up a hit with the best of them. It’s a different game in every other park.”

Boone, who was ejected during the top of the eighth, wasn't faced with a decision on whether to allow Fried to continue a no-hit bid as his pitch count climbed.

“I probably wouldn’t have let him go to 120 today or something like that,” he said. “There's a conversation to be had there if he gets through the eighth, where he’s at. I think he was a little bit gassed, so I don’t know what the final number but I wouldn’t have just let him no matter what, that’s for sure.”

Last May 11, Fried pitched seven hitless innings for Atlanta at the New York Mets’ Citi Field and was removed after 109 pitches in a 4-1 win. Joe Jiménez worked around a pair of walks in the eighth before Raisel Iglesias retired the first two batters of the ninth. J.D. Martinez homered just over the wall in right field on the next pitch off Iglesias.

New York had made three defensive gems to keep Tampa Bay hitless and led 3-0.

In the third, Fried hustled to first base to beat the speedy Simpson by half a step on a grounder to Goldschmidt.

Then to end the fifth, Trent Grisham robbed Mangum with a diving catch in deep right-center before throwing out Danny Jansen attempting to tag up and go to second.

Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. sprinted 74 feet from his second base position to make a backhand grab as he was falling of Christopher Morel's popup to shallow left-center.

“I called him Flash Gordon,” Boone said, “came out of nowhere.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried, left, throws to first base for the out, as third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera looks on, after fielding a ground ball hit by Tampa Bay Rays' Jake Mangum during the second inning of a baseball game, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried throws to first base on a pick-off attempt as Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero makes it back safely during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried throws to home plate during the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong's New Year celebrations. Not this year.

The territory will ring in 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show Wednesday night featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district that also is home to the famous nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Fireworks have long been part of the city’s celebrations for the New Year, Lunar New Year and National Day. The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong’s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people including many tourists to both sides of the promenade.

Rosanna Law, the territory's secretary for culture, sports and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.

The financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by bamboo scaffolding and green netting.

Authorities have pointed to the substandard netting and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire’s rapid spread. Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. The casualties pained many residents across the city.

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead. During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays also were scrapped.

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural “firecrackers,” according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.

The Guinness World Records organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China’s Tang dynasty dating to around 618 to 907 C.E. Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.

People gather at Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate the start of 2026 in the Central district of Hong Kong, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People attend the New Year countdown event to celebrate the start of 2026 in the Central district of Hong Kong, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People take selfies at Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate the start of 2026 in the Central district of Hong Kong, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People pose for photographs at Lan Kwai Fong to celebrate the start of 2026 in the Central district of Hong Kong, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

FILE - Fireworks explode over Victoria Harbour to celebrate the start of 2025 at Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)