Yankees usher in 2026 MLB season with shutout win over Giants

[p]Yankees pitchers threw a combined three-hit shutout, giving up just two walks with six strikeouts. All of their hitters recorded a hit except for one player - the reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, who finished the game 0-for-5 with four strikeouts.[/p][p]In 2025, Judge didn't record a single four-strikeout game, and now he already has one in the first game of the 2026 season. [/p][p]The Yankees continue their Opening Day win streak as they have now won an MLB-leading five in a row, also winning eight of their last nine. It's their first Opening Day shutout on the road since 1967.[/p][p]Meanwhile, the Giants have lost six of their last eight Opening Day games.[/p][embed guid="f7617218-63f2-4668-bab6-6024afe94062" url="https://x.com/MLB/status/2036999915339976850?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][h2]Recap and highlights[/h2][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/san-francisco-giants/bRZ9b6xj/"]Giants[/a] starting pitcher [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/webb-logan/t6XsrJVT/"]Logan Webb[/a] got the 2026 MLB season underway by striking out [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/grisham-trent/CMVXHlmL/"]Trent Grisham[/a] in the first official at-bat. He would send down [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/judge-aaron/WSFM7DfK/"]Aaron Judge[/a] on strikes shortly after, before getting [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/bellinger-cody/djPOZqzn/"]Cody Bellinger[/a] to pop out in a 1-2-3 inning. [/p][p]In the bottom half of the first, the Giants would get runners on first and second with one out after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/arraez-luis/z18CGfi2/"]Luis Arraez[/a] earned the first walk of the 2026 season and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/devers-rafael/tlnnLLmD/"]Rafael Devers[/a] earned the first hit. But [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/new-york-yankees/SrC4LDIT/"]Yankees[/a] starter [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fried-max/lKCD7KOt/"]Max Fried[/a] would get out of the jam. [/p][embed guid="8a8e5131-0658-47c1-bafe-4022a73f72c9" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HprHWEz65c" social-type="youtube" /][p]The top of the second inning is when the Yankees' bats caught on fire. [/p][p]After Webb forced [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rice-ben/SEr5lgvs/"]Ben Rice[/a] into a groundout, he would put runners on first and second after giving up a single to [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/stanton-giancarlo/jVqE0evF/"]Giancarlo Stanton[/a] and hitting [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/chisholm-jazz/pGqQ2cQJ/"]Jazz Chisholm[/a] Jr. [/p][p][b]In the next at-bat, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/caballero-jose/dQT27Rpr/"]Jose Caballero[/a] would record the first RBI of the 2026 MLB season with a double to left field, bringing Stanton home from second to make it 1-0. [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcmahon-ryan/dUDUSUtk/"]Ryan McMahon[/a] would follow up with a single of his own right after Caballero, clearing the bases to make it 3-0. [/b][/p][p][b]The damage would keep going after an Austin Well single and a Grisham triple that cleared the bases to put the Bronx Bombers up 5-0. [/b][/p][p]Judge would strike out for the second time in two innings before Bellinger would follow suit to end the top half of the inning. [/p][embed guid="3ba198ac-df74-4d36-9d5d-f82cc0cad70a" url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kumFLQLB7F8" social-type="youtube" /][p]After a near 1-2-3 bottom half of the second inning from the Giants' bats, had Fried not hit [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/schmitt-casey/rab9S4iS/"]Casey Schmitt[/a], both teams would go on to put up a 1-2-3 in the third inning and would see three outs in four batters in the fourth.[/p][p]It wasn't until the top of the fifth that the Yankees added on some extra insurance. [/p][p][b]Bellinger and Rice would start the inning off with a pair of singles before Stanton would hit one himself to bring in Bellinger from second, forcing Rice to third, to make it 6-0.[/b][/p][p][b]Chisholm would ground into a force out, bringing home Rice from third on a throwing error, to make it 7-0 before he became the first player in the 2026 MLB season with a stolen base. [/b][/p][embed guid="46ded58a-3a42-4c19-aaff-b28bdc3568d9" url="https://x.com/MLB/status/2036986720848171022?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]San Fran would find themselves in another 1-2-3 inning before the game headed into the top of the sixth. Webb would come out of the game after giving up seven runs (six earned) with one walk and seven strikeouts, surpassing 1,000 for his career.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/winn-keaton/bN2a9hr6/"]Keaton Winn[/a] would come into the game and end the inning unscathed, striking out Judge for his fourth of the game. But, once again, the Giants would be sent down 1-2-3 by Fried. [/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/brubaker-jonathan-trey/llEBwIbF/"]JT Brubaker[/a] would come on in relief for Winn, getting out of the inning with just one walk and one hit. With a single by Chisholm, it would make it five of the Yankees' 10 hits coming off first pitches at that point in the game.[/p][p]Fried's first start of the season would end after forcing [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lee-jung-hoo/fu2L8K6d/"]Jung Hoo Lee[/a] into a lineout to start the bottom half of the seventh. He became just the fourth pitcher in Yankees history to throw at least six innings on Opening Day and give up two hits with no runs.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/bird-jake/OpEEKq6d/"]Jake Bird[/a] would come into the game for Fried and immediately strike out [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ramos-heliot/dzkVbpLF/"]Heliot Ramos[/a], then force Schmitt into a groundout. Arraez would record the Giants' third hit of the game and their first since the fourth inning after going hitless through the 5th, 6th, and 7th. [/p][p]But San Fran couldn't get anything done in the end, ultimately losing 7-0 after recording just three hits. [/p][embed guid="784e6d1e-009b-41bf-a004-eb6e0420d98e" url="https://x.com/MLB/status/2037000370098966572?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][h2]Netflix with a terrible debut[/h2][p]This was Netflix's first-ever MLB game, and it was met with a ton of criticism. For starters, instead of the 8:05 p.m. Eastern start time, the game's opening ceremonies ran until 8:30. [/p][p]From the scorebug with small texts, not even showing it at times, to [a href="https://x.com/Jolly_Olive/status/2036966704392151207?s=20" target="_blank"]holographic ads behind home plate[/a] that were an eyesore, and having non-baseball people, including comedian Bert Kreischer and NFL quarterback Jameis Winston, work as "MCs" for the game, it wasn't a good debut for the popular streaming platform. [/p][embed guid="10bec860-aad2-4b33-b79a-2db663f1bd46" url="https://x.com/awfulannouncing/status/2036964652002021395?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]The broadcast also missed the first ABS challenge in MLB regular season history because of dugout interviews.[/p][p]Caballero called for a review on a strike, which was upheld, making the first ever challenge a failure and it wasn't even broadcasted to fans watching at home.[/p][p]Luckily, the "highlight" was still posted to social media.[/p][embed guid="1e8f822c-b40d-4281-959b-185da21b02a0" url="https://x.com/mlb/status/2036980772519780730?s=61" social-type="twitter" /]