Barring inclement weather, or a more drastic reason for postponement, today will be the last Sunday without Yankee baseball until at least October 4. (That day could have a postseason game.) That gives me plenty of time to summarize the season-opening series away to the San Francisco Giants.
This past Wednesday, the Yankees opened the 2026 season at Oracle Park in San Francisco, and beat the Giants, 7-0. After a day off on Thursday, Cam Schlittler started. Through 5 1/3rd innings, he had allowed just 1 baserunner, a double by Heliot Ramos in the 2nd inning.
Aaron Judge continued to strike out, but he also hit his 369th career home run, tying him with Ralph Kiner, Todd Helton, and the still-active Manny Machado on the all-time list. And Giancarlo Stanton hit his 454th home run. He is Major League Baseball's active leader.
These homers gave Schlittler a 3-0 lead. He had thrown only 68 pitches, 49 of them for strikes. There was absolutely no good reason to take him out.
Boone took him out, and brought in Fernando Cruz. He walked a batter, but allowed no more baserunners. Tim Hill pitched a perfect 7th, Doval a perfect 8th, and David Bednar survived a leadoff walk and ended the game. So, how many Yankees does it take to pitch a one-hit shutout? This time, 5.
It was the 1st time the Yankees had opened the season with back-to-back shutout wins since 1967. But that wasn't a good sign: The Yankees finished 9th out of 10 teams in the single-division American League that year.
Nevertheless: 18 innings, no runs, 4 hits, 4 walks. Pretty snazzy pitching.
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And then last night was the Fox Saturday Game of the Week. With Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt unavailable, and 2024 American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil apparently no longer trusted by Yankee management to be a starter, Will Warren was given the start. Between the game being on Fox, and the Yankees having a pitcher named Warren -- Adam Warren was even worse -- I was not optimistic.
In the top of the 5th, Judge hit his 370th home run, surpassing Kiner, Helton and Machado, and tying Gil Hodges. So far, this season, he is 2-for-13, a batting average of .154, an on-base percentage that is also .154, and 7 strikeouts. But both of those hits are home runs, so he has 3 RBIs, his slugging percentage is .615, and his OPS+ is 122.
Warren got through 4 1/3rd innings, allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, the 2nd of those walks having just happened when Boone relieved him. Headrick finished the 5th inning with no damage. Bird pitched the 6th and most of the 7th, Hill pitched the rest of the 7th and all of the 8th, and Bednar allowed a hit and a walk in the 9th, bringing the winning run to the plate, but induced a double play to end it. Yankees 3, Giants 1. Bird was credited with the win.
So: 27 innings, 1 run, 13 hits, 7 walks. Cliché Alert: They say pitching is 75 percent of baseball. If so, then that's a very good reason why the Yankees are 3-0.
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Next up on the all-time home run list: For Stanton, the next names are José Canseco and Adam Dunn, each with 462; for Judge, his own Yankee teammate, Paul Goldschmidt, with 372, followed by Rocky Colavito, with 374.
This day begans with the Los Angeles Dodgers also 3-0; while the Mets, the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Toronto Blue Jays have started 2-0.
The Yankees head up the coast to face the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. The Monday and Tuesday games start at 9:40 PM Eastern Time (6:40 Pacific/local), while the Wednesday game is at 4:10 PM (1:10 local). Then, after a day off, on Friday, at 1;35 PM, we have the home opener, against the Miami Marlins.
Let's see how far the Yankees can take this season-opening streak, and this season.
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