Michael Kay was beside himself. Although he plays the role of an “impartial observer” on his radio show, his objectivity tends to wane in the broadcast booth. While he isn’t a blatant homer, he often supports the Bronx Bombers—this is par for the course for many local broadcasters and part of Kay’s M.O. Still, he’s regarded as one of the best play-by-play announcers in baseball, though Awful Announcing’s local announcer rankings often fail to reflect this, largely due to the rotating analysts on YES Network rather than Kay’s own work.
The recent uproar surrounding Max Fried losing his no-hitter on a technicality, however, was directly related to Kay. He was vocally opposed to the Tampa Bay official scorer’s decision to retroactively change a borderline play, which effectively ended Fried’s no-hit bid with just six outs remaining. Kay asserted that a call should either be made in the moment—as a hit or an error—or not at all. Delaying a decision for multiple innings, especially in a potential no-hitter scenario, crossed the line for him.
In that instance, Paul Goldschmidt misplayed a ball as Chandler Simpson, dubbed the fastest man in baseball, sprinted down the line. Even if he had fielded it cleanly, Simpson would have likely beaten the throw due to his speed, and ultimately, the ruling favored the Rays.
The scorer altered the call from an error to a single, ending Fried’s no-hit bid.
This play was changed from an error to a single.
Max Fried’s no-hit bid is over pic.twitter.com/aAuYkS3uk9
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 20, 2025
While official scorers can review and adjust their rulings, even if it is a time-consuming process, Kay had a valid point: context and timing matter. Whether his overall argument was justified remained a point of contention. “Well, you see the line, and no, you didn’t miss a batter,” he said on Easter Sunday. “I am absolutely flabbergasted, ladies and gentlemen. The official scorer at Steinbrenner Field, Bill Matthews, has changed the Simpson E3 into a hit while the Yankees were in the dugout. Just unfathomable. Either you call it when it happens, or you don’t wait three innings; it’s just unbelievable. And there’s Bill Matthews. He’s going to have a lot of questions thrown at him, and he’ll need to provide some solid answers because I can’t believe this is happening.”
“That’s the problem,” added YES Network analyst and former Yankees third baseman Todd Frazier. “You’ve got to stick with your initial call.” He found the situation frustrating, especially since Fried was pitching magnificently. While making his point, Kay remarked, “Once you don’t call it a hit in the sixth inning, the assumption was they’d change it to a hit if it appeared legitimate. But you almost have to stay with your call at that point. To take a no-hitter away from a guy after seven innings due to an official scoring change is just unbelievable.” Frazier suggested delaying any postings until the inning ended, allowing for a couple of reviews before making any decisions.
“This is a tough one,” he admitted. Soon after, as they continued their discussion, Rays outfielder Jake Mangum knocked a 3-1 pitch into center field for a clean single, officially sealing Fried’s no-hitter just five pitches into the bottom of the eighth inning.
Upon reviewing the play again, Frazier conceded that Simpson would have “most likely” beaten Fried to first base anyway. However, Kay might not find much comfort in that realization. “All they had to do was wait one batter,” he noted. “If Mangum had gotten a hit, then you say, ‘Oh, by the way, that E3 is changed to a hit.’” Yet, that wasn’t the case, and Kay’s commentary didn’t go unchallenged. An account on X, @ScoringChanges, which is run by a seasoned NCAA and MiLB scorer/stringer, strongly countered his argument.
“You cannot discuss in the sixth inning how this should have been a hit and be surprised by the posted error, only to get frustrated when it was correctly fixed between the seventh and eighth,” the account stated. They further pointed out that Aaron Boone indicated postgame that he believed it was a hit all along, making Kay’s outburst appear somewhat performative.
So here is the @YESNetwork broadcast with Michael Kay, and this really isn’t a great look for Michael.
You cannot talk in the sixth inning about how this should have been a hit and be surprised that an error was posted, and then get mad when this was correctly fixed between the… pic.twitter.com/U3G7Lwcbno
— MLB Scoring Changes (@ScoringChanges) April 21, 2025
In the end, despite the controversy, the only thing that truly changed was the scorecard.
