SAN FRANCISCO — The shutout streak is over, but the winning streak remains alive and well.
At long last, the Yankees finally allowed a run after starting the season with 20 straight scoreless innings from their pitching staff, but they got enough from their offense and another strong effort from their bullpen to finish the sweep.
For the third straight season, the Yankees are 3-0 after fending off the Giants for a tense 3-1 win Saturday at Oracle Park, capping a well-rounded opening series in which their bullpen was especially clutch.
“That’s what you want to do,” said Aaron Judge, who homered for the second straight game. “That was one thing the past couple years we’ve struggled at, is finishing off series and sweeping series. So we just tried to make it a point pregame today, we talked about it, ‘We got to close out the series.’
“That’s what’s going to make the difference between winning the division or ending up tied and losing it. So every game matters and we’ll just take it on to Seattle.”
After Max Fried and Cam Schlittler turned in terrific starts in the first two games, combining for 11 ²/₃ scoreless innings — and relievers accounting for 6 ¹/₃ more — Will Warren held the Giants to one run across 4 ¹/₃ innings Saturday.
The game was then left in the hands of the bullpen, which used a handoff from Brent Headrick to Jake Bird to Tim Hill to David Bednar to secure the win heading into a rare Sunday off day in Seattle.
“This was awesome,” said Ben Rice, who gave the Yankees a lead with a two-run double in the third inning. “Some tight games, great plays on defense, clutch pitching, clutch hitting. It was a great way to start the year.”
While there is still a long way to go for this bullpen to answer some of the questions it faced entering the season — looking like the Yankees’ potential weak spot — it has started the year with 11 scoreless innings.
Bednar played with fire in the ninth when the first two runners reached, but he struck out Harrison Bader and then got Patrick Bailey to ground into a double play to end it — the fourth double play the Yankees turned Saturday, three of them coming in the final four innings.
Bird was particularly impressive in a five-out appearance. He entered with a runner on second and no outs in the sixth inning and gave up a single through the left side to Heliot Ramos, putting runners on the corners. Bird then locked it down by striking out Willy Adames and then getting Bader to ground into another double play that was smoothly turned by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and José Caballero.
Hill also used a double-play ball to end the eighth inning, getting former Red Sox player (and Yankees nemesis) Rafael Devers to ground into the twin killing.
Austin Wells, who caught all 27 innings this series and guided the pitching staff that allowed just one run, helped change the game with a pair of automated ball-strike system challenges from behind the plate that helped Bird and Hill get through their innings.
Trent Grisham also used the ABS in the third inning to avoid a strikeout and eventually draw a walk that soon gave way to Rice’s two-out, two-run double off the high brick wall in right field for the 2-0 lead.
Warren, who left runners on the corners in the first inning, gave up the only run the Giants scored all weekend in the bottom of the third. But he responded by retiring the next three batters, two on strikeouts, to curb any Giants momentum.
“Look, wins are always hard to come by,” manager Aaron Boone said after his 700th career win. “You take them when you can get them. I love that we played well. But it’s March.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
