Baseball is Back: Yankees vs Giants Kick Off the 2026 Season
- Mayline Ruiz
- 8 hours ago
- 6 min read
After what has felt like forever, baseball season is finally back. There has been a lot of anticipation for the 2026 MLB season, with a potential lockout, but also some interest in who will defeat the back-to-back World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. One team in their division, the San Francisco Giants, recently finished up a series against the New York Yankees, with the Yankees sweeping the series 3-0.
Rosters
During the offseason, both teams had a smooth offseason. While there weren't any big flashy players signed, both the Yankees and the Giants solidified their lineup with more consistent bats.
San Francisco Giants
Starting strong, the Giants found their new manager, Tony Vitello, on October 22. Vitello won the 2024 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship with the University of Tennessee against Texas A&M. Notably, San Francisco signed outfielder Harrison Bader to a two-year contract and infielder Luis Arraez to a one-year contract.
Bader, who has played with big teams such as the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, has been a consistent hitter. In his nine years in the major leagues, Bader has a .713 OPS with 322 RBIs and 88 home runs.
Arraez spent most of his career with the Minnesota Twins, and recently played with the San Diego Padres as well. Arraez had a successful spring training, including his involvement in the World Baseball Classic, as he was part of Team Venezuela, who were the WBC champions. These signings will play a big role with the Giants as they need more consistent bats to score more runs.
New York Yankees
Switching to the East Coast, the Yankees had a bit of a short offseason, with their involvement in the MLB postseason. New York appeared in the American League Wild Card series, where they defeated the Boston Red Sox 2-1, but fell short during the American League Division Series to the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1.
Compared to San Francisco, the Yankees had a noisier offseason with big signings, such as resigning first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year contract and left fielder Cody Bellinger to a five-year contract.
Goldschmidt had a pretty decent 2025 season in his first year with New York, where he had a .731 OPS, with 45 RBIs and 10 home runs. Most importantly, Goldschmidt is a consistent player who has been in the league for over 10 years and has played in over 100 games, excluding 2011 and 2020.
Many New York fans were looking for the Yankees to re-sign Bellinger following his performance in the regular season and postseason. During the 2025 season, Bellinger had 29 home runs with 98 RBIs, giving him a .814 OPS. Bellinger, who can be a reliable hitter, also does a phenomenal job defensively.
Similar to San Francisco, the Yankees' signings will play a pivotal role for their pitchers, who need run support, especially with their big-name pitchers such as Max Fried and Gerrit Cole, who is expected to return this season.
The Giants and the Yankees' series started with a bang. There was a lot of anticipation to see how both teams would perform, and it's safe to say that this was a fun series.
Game 1 - March 25
The matchup was set to be a pitcher's duel with San Francisco starting Webb and New York starting Max Fried. Webb has a career 3.42 ERA and 1001 strikeouts, while Fried has a 3.02 ERA and 1056 strikeouts. Both pitchers faced challenges with getting outs, but ultimately, the Giants left runners on base and weren't able to get the run support they needed.
The scoring began at the top of the second inning when José Caballero hit a single, and it allowed Giancarlo Stanton to run home, giving the Yankees the lead. In that same inning, Ryan McMahon hit a single, bringing Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Caballero home. Trent Grisham then hit a triple, and the Yankees had a 5-0 lead after McMahon and Austin Wells ran home.
The Yankees didn't score any other runs until the top of the fifth inning when Giancarlo Stanton hit a single, which moved Ben Rice to second base and brought Bellinger home. Chisolm Jr. grounded into a force out, which allowed Rice to score, making it 7-0.
While San Francisco didn't score any runs, Fried did have a challenging start to the game in the first inning when he walked Arraez, and Rafael Devers hit a single, putting runners on first and third base. However, he was able to get out of that following an out from Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Jung Hoo Lee.
Fried pitched six innings and recorded a 0.00 ERA, allowing only two hits, whereas Webb recorded a 10.80 ERA in five innings, allowing nine hits and seven runs. Following game one of the series, people thought San Francisco would tie the series during Game 2.
Game 2
Heading into Game 2, the Giants put Robbie Ray on the mound to go against New York's pitcher, Cam Schlittler. Ray has had a 3.94 ERA with 1738 strikeouts, while Schlittler has a 2.76 ERA with 92 strikeouts, in only his second year in the major leagues.
The game remained scoreless up until the top of the sixth inning when Aaron Judge hit a two-run home run, bringing Paul Goldschmidt home and giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Giancarlo Stanton also hit a home run in the sixth inning, extending their lead by one run.
Ray went for five innings and recorded a 3.38 ERA, allowing five hits and two runs, versus Schlittler, who recorded a 0.00 ERA, just like Fried did in Game 1. Schlittler went for five innings and allowed just one hit. This was the second game in a row in which San Francisco was unable to score any runs, but it was a good pitching matchup.
Finally, in game three, the Giants were able to score their first runs of the season, but it wasn't enough to get their first win of the season.
Game 3
San Francisco's only hope for this game was to score some runs against Will Warren. The pitching matchup was set between Warren and Tyler Mahle. In his third year of being a Yankee, Warren has had a 5.09 ERA and 203 strikeouts. Whereas with Mahle, in his first year with San Francisco, he has had a 4.07 ERA with 758 strikeouts.
Throughout the game, many players on both teams had great at-bats and got on base. It wasn't until the top of the third inning that Yankees' Ben Rice hit a double, bringing Bellinger and Grisham home, giving New York a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third inning, San Francisco responded with a single from Chapman, bringing Jung Hoo Lee home, giving San Francisco their first run of the season. It was a close game until the top of the fifth inning when Judge hit his second home run of the season, and the Yankees extended their lead to 3-1.
Mahle pitched for four innings and recorded five strikeouts, landing him at a 4.50 ERA, while Warren went four innings as well but only struck out three players and recorded a 2.08 ERA.
With this being the only time the Yankees and the Giants face each other this season, it can tell us a lot about how this season could pan out. San Francisco has to find different ways to get on base and score more runs, especially given the division they play in. Having the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres in their division will be a challenge for them if they can't score runs, given that both San Diego and Los Angeles have big-name players.
With New York, they scored many runs, but their pitchers also played a crucial role in the sweep. Both Fried and Schlittler played a part in two back-to-back shutout wins. This can give them an edge with how they go about their following match-ups and ensure they have consistency both with their position players and pitchers.
Edited by Mary Merensky
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