Yankees Win Fifth Straight Season Opener in 7-0 Dominance Over Giants
Yankees
A creepy hand on a skateboard may have thrown out the ceremonial first pitch, but Max Fried’s pitches were excellent. With six 1/3 scoreless innings, Fried helped the Yankees shut out the San Francisco Giants 7-0 on Opening Night, securing their fifth consecutive win to start a season.
The pomp and circumstance were beautiful, especially in the early evening at McCovey Cove. Watching Opening Day on Netflix was different – even a bit weird – but Oracle Park was the perfect setting for the first game of the season.
“This is an amazing setting here,” said manager Aaron Boone. “You know, Oracle Park’s one of the great cathedrals in our league, and it’s a great fanbase here in San Francisco. It’s that different environment with the cool weather – the Bay Area weather. I thought it was a great atmosphere tonight. It’s fun to be a part of those things.”
Fried’s outing was challenging at first, especially after walking Luis Arraez on four pitches to start the game. Two batters later, the Giants had runners on the corners with one out, but after sending Willy Adames down swinging with a cutter, Fried’s Opening Day jitters began to fade.
“Tried to figure out how to get it done when you aren’t the most locked in,” said Fried, whose 6 1/3 scoreless innings were the first by any Yankee on Opening Day since David Cone in 1996. “Especially coming up and walking a guy on four pitches and having to grind through it.”
Fried’s ability to overcome sloppy starts is just one reason why he is the Ace of the Yankees’ pitching staff. Additionally, he is the Yankees’ most consistent arm, and tonight, out of the gate, he showed it.
“Definitely was searching, but when the guys go out there and put up five runs in the second, it just allows you to take a deep breath and get into the game,” Fried stated.
Logan Webb, who sits atop the Giants’ rotation, has pitched more innings than any National League starter in the last three years. He is a workhorse, and he had to work especially hard tonight because he never found his groove against the Yankees’ lineup. That is, except against Aaron Judge, who struck out four times, something he never did in any game last season.
As Fried pointed out, the early run support he received helped him glide through the rest of his start. The opposite happened to Webb, and for the Yankees, it’s always good when the supporting cast thrives without its captain.
In the top of the second inning, with one out, Giancarlo Stanton singled to center field, and Webb hit Jazz Chisholm Jr. with an inside sinker. Recognizing Webb’s discomfort, José Caballero swung on a 1-1 sweeper and drove Stanton home.
Caballero, who led the league in stolen bases last year, didn’t stop at first base. Although he was only credited for a single, he continued to run to second base, and as he slid, the throw from third base deflected off his shoe.
What Caballero didn’t yet know was that in the fourth inning, he would become the first player in Major League Baseball history to challenge a pitch. He disagreed with the home plate umpire’s strike call on a high inside sinker, but the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system upheld the call.
Returning to the second inning, Ryan McMahon followed Caballero with a two-run single on a ground ball that rolled into center field. Despite finishing the game with two strikeouts, McMahon was quick to showcase his new closed batting stance. He hopes it will help him reduce his strikeout rate, which was the highest in the Majors last season.
Surprisingly, the Yankees didn’t need a single home run to touch home plate seven times. “There’s plenty of long balls in here, but when we can stack good at-bats like [in the second inning], and we can score some runs without it, it’s definitely a good thing for us,” McMahon said.
After McMahon’s single, Austin Wells earned another before Trent Grisham stepped up to the plate. All season, whenever Grisham underperforms, he will risk being scrutinized because of the $22.025 million qualifying offer he accepted. Many fans believe Spencer Jones is more deserving of the right to play center field for the Yankees.
But Grisham, always cool and composed, showed in the second inning that he doesn’t care. He punished the first pitch he saw to deep center field. Although it didn’t eclipse the fence, Grisham sped around the bases and beat the throw to third for a triple. Like Caballero, as he slid, he got clipped by the throw to third base. It was as if baseballs were falling from the San Francisco sky.
“We got aggressive on the bases a little bit there,” Boone said. “We feel like we can [score] in some different ways, and tonight was one of those.
“We’ve got a lot to prove, and look, we’re confident. I know [the players] are confident in their ability to have good at-bats and put up runs. But we’re one game into this thing, and we’ve still got a long way to go to prove that.”
The Yankees scored again in the fifth inning as Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice each struck the first pitches they saw for singles. Stanton then plated Bellinger with a 114-mph line drive to center field, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed by reaching on a throwing error by Adames. The error allowed Rice to score, putting the Yankees ahead 7-0.
Entering the season, Chisholm proclaimed he could blast 50 home runs and steal just as many bases. At one point in the game, the Netflix crew mic’d Chisholm up, and he explained how reaching for the stars is better than setting low goals. He stole his first bag in the fifth inning, so he’s on the right track.
Defensively, Chisholm flashed his glove in the sixth inning on a 107-mph line drive off Matt Chapman’s bat. The ball bounced out of Chisholm’s glove and into his bare right hand. Fried, who pitched into the seventh inning before Jake Bird replaced him, was certainly happy.
“It’s a team game,” Fried said. “We just want to go out there and do what we can to try to win every single game.”
Brent Headrick and Camilo Doval came out of the bullpen after Bird secured the final two outs of the seventh inning. Doval, who returned to San Francisco for the first time since being traded at last year’s deadline, is considered a high-leverage arm. While his ninth-inning spot wasn’t high-leverage, it didn’t matter much because the Yankees have tomorrow off.
Overall, it was a successful Opening Day – or night. It was merely the first of 162 chapters of a promising Yankees season.
“Opening Day is always fun,” McMahon said. “Netflix, I think, did a good job. It was a spectacle for sure, but it was cool.”
The Yankees will continue their series against San Francisco on Friday night as RHP Cam Schlittler makes his season debut against the southpaw Robbie Ray (4:35 PM, 3:35 PM CDT – YES, Gotham Sports).
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Yankees
