Max Fried had his worst start as a Yankee last Friday night at Dodger Stadium, and afterward, he repeatedly lamented giving up a three-run lead.

The lefthander didn’t give up any leads Thursday night — or much of anything.

With the Yankees’ offense mostly quiet for a second straight night, Fried allowed one hit in six innings in a series-clinching 4-0 victory over the Guardians in front of 41,665 at the Stadium.

“Last time I let the lead go, so I just wanted to make it a point to keep ’em in it and try to hold the lead as long as I could,” said Fried, who was unable to hold a 5-2 lead over the Dodgers in an 8-5 loss.

Cody Bellinger drove in three runs, hitting a two-run homer in the fourth that gave Fried and the Yankees (38-23) a 2-0 lead. Bellinger’s two-out RBI single in the seventh off lefthander Kolby Allard gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead and Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

Bellinger was hitting .196 entering May 3 but since then is slashing .317/.390/.567 with six homers, six doubles, 19 RBIs and 17 runs in 27 games.

“I felt like I was chasing a lot, just trying to do too much,” Bellinger said of his early-season struggles. “So it was [about] just zoning back in.”

Until the mini-outburst in the seventh, aside from Bellinger’s ninth homer, it had been a struggle for a Yankees offense that was shut out Wednesday night. It made Fried’s performance all the more important.

Though he loaded the bases with two outs in a 28-pitch first inning, Fried controlled the Guardians (33-28), who did succeed in driving his pitch count up with their share of long at-bats throughout a season-high 103-pitch outing.

Fried (8-1, 1.78 ERA), who retired 11 straight at one point, allowed two walks in addition to an infield single in the first by Jose Ramirez, who had two of the Guardians’ three hits.

“Felt like I was mixing my pitches really well,” Fried said.

Bellinger, who spent the first eight years of his career in the National League, faced Fried plenty (the lefthander spent the first eight years of his career with Atlanta).

“Unpredictability. Five quality pitches. Can really locate any pitch at any time,” Bellinger said of the difficulty of facing Fried. “Keeps hitters off-balance, keeps hitters guessing. And on top of that, he’s very smart, understands his plan and how he wants to execute pitches.”

Bellinger made a leaping catch at the rightfield wall to take away an extra-base hit in the fourth. Fried smiled and pointed at Bellinger from the mound.

“He made just a really great leaping grab,” Fried said.

Aaron Judge, the only Yankee to reach base in the first three innings against Cleveland righty Slade Cecconi — he was hit by a 75-mph curveball in the first — collected his team’s first hit with one out in the fourth, slicing a 93-mph fastball down the rightfield line for a double. Bellinger then jumped on a first-pitch, 95-mph fastball and blasted it 398 feet to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

“To finally break through after a tough night offensively last night was big,” Aaron Boone said.

Mark Leiter Jr. entered in the seventh and didn’t pitch poorly but left with the bases loaded and one out.

Ramirez blooped a leadoff single to right and Leiter struck out David Fry with a curveball. The switch-hitting Carlos Santana, batting from the left side and facing an overshift, poked a single through the mostly empty third-base side of the infield. Gabriel Arias then grounded one in the hole at short. Anthony Volpe fielded it and tried to get the out at third, where Chisholm was unable to corral the errant throw.

The throwing error was reminiscent of the one Volpe made during the disastrous fifth inning of last October’s fifth game of the World Series against the Dodgers. This one wasn’t costly, though.

Boone brought in lefty Tim Hill, who struck out the lefty-swinging Bo Naylor and got Jhonkensy Noel to fly to short right to end the threat, then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.

“Incredible. They’ve been doing such a good job all year,” Fried said of the bullpen. “I just thought it was a really good team win.”