NEW YORK -- Max Fried was 9 years old and nearly three thousand miles away on the evening of Oct. 16, 2003, when Aaron Boone sent a knuckleball into the left-field seats at the original Yankee Stadium, etching his name into Yankees history with a pennant-winning home run.

Watching on television from his California home, Fried couldn’t have imagined that evening he would someday be part of baseball’s most storied rivalry -- but, as he said on the eve of his Game 1 start in the American League Wild Card Series, “I’m really glad I am now.”

Having set career highs in wins (19), starts (32) and innings pitched (195 1/3) during his first season with the Yankees, the 31-year-old Fried said he intends to leave it all on the field Tuesday, having reached the stage of the campaign where tomorr

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