BALTIMORE -- There were so many good things for the New York Yankees to take out of their 7-0 drubbing of the Baltimore Orioles that if they spread them all out, they would have covered the vacant seats in the half-empty Camden Yards on Thursday night.

Most of them centered around ace Max Fried and his seven innings of brilliance. He struck out 13, tying a career-best. He gave up just three hits and a walk, and he touched 98.5 mph. He was poised. He was calm. He looked healthy and in charge.

With just one more start remaining for Fried in the regular season until the Yankees inevitably make him their Game 1 starter in the playoffs, he made a declaration that should scare the rest of the teams in the American League playoff picture:

"I feel like I did toward the beginning of the year."

Remember back then? When the 31-year-old lefty was in consideration to start the All-Star Game after going 11-3 with a 2.43 ERA in 20 starts?

He's back.

"I faced him a lot where he was doing that to us," said first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who spent his career in the National League with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals, often taking on Fried and the Atlanta Braves. "He pitched really well. He attacked so well. He's got a bunch of pitches, and he made our job easy."

Fried has been on a roll of late, re-establishing himself as one of the best starting pitchers in the game after a midsummer hiccup that included an ugly blister on his left thumb and over-reliance on his cutter. He had a 6.80 ERA in eight starts from July 1 to Aug. 16, but since he's healed, and since he's gone back to varying his arsenal, he's been dominant.

Before Thursday, he had a 1.95 ERA over his last five starts, helping the Yankees to where they currently stand: three games out of first place in the AL East while holding the top wild-card position.

On Thursday, the Yankees came off tough overnight travel after a night game in Minnesota, and Fried carried them, using seven different pitches and leaning mostly on his sinker (26 percent), which generated six swings and misses on 11 total swings. Manager Aaron Boone and Fried each pointed to Fried's changeup as a difference-maker Thursday night. The pitch, which was Fried's second-most used offering, helped him to a whopping eight whiffs on 10 swings.

Fried said he had a "really good feel" for the pitch and that he was "trusting it."

"His stuff was good," Boone said. "I thought (it was the) best changeup he's probably had all year. It was really good from the side -- the depth on it, the swing and miss with it. Using it. Featured it. But the stuff was really good again, I thought. Just really in control of the game."

Before Fried signed an eight-year, $218-million deal with the Yankees in December, his calling card in eight seasons in Atlanta was his varied pitch mix, which also features a curveball, four-seamer, a sweeper and a slider.

Until Aug. 10, however, he relied very heavily on a cutter that has had a .271 expected batting average against it this season. Since then, he's mixed things up, relying a lot more on his sinker. It probably hasn't hurt that the Yankees' infield defense improved markedly when the team traded for third baseman Ryan McMahon before the July 31 deadline, giving Fried more reason to pitch to contact.

Fried said his rebound has been the result of "sticking with my strengths."

"I've got a lot of pitches and I can mix speeds a lot, and leaning into that," he said. "I trust in the defense behind me making some really nice plays."

Perhaps his most impressive moment came when he ended the sixth inning by blowing a 98.5 mph fastball by Tyler O'Neill. After the whiff, catcher Austin Wells pointed at Fried and then hit a move that could be best described as the kind of backpedal an NBA player does after draining a three-pointer. Fried was so locked in that he didn't even notice Wells.

With the playoffs so close, it's thrilling for the Yankees, who lost primary ace Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery during spring training, to see Fried regaining his peak form.

"This is when you want to really hit your stride," Fried said. "Going into the last week or so, we're excited and want to go out there and finish strong, (and) go into the playoffs strong, and for me, personally, wins are a team stat. Can't give my teammates enough credit for putting me in position to get that win."

"He's an ace," Boone said. "He pitches like that. He's had a phenomenal year to this point. On top of that, just the kind of person and teammate he is. He's everything you want in bringing somebody in to be a featured guy in your rotation."

Yet Fried has been more than that lately. He's been what he was at the start of the season for the Yankees, dominating every fifth day -- and at the worst possible time for the rest of the playoff-bound teams in the AL.

Why Max Fried's declaration after Yankees dominate O's should scare rest of AL