The New York Yankees produced a successful road trip to start the season by pitching highly effectively while the offense generated timely hits without constantly getting on base.
In their home debut on Friday, the Yankees continued pitching effectively and added more traffic to the bases.
The Yankees hope to get another strong outing from their pitching staff and keep getting on base Saturday night when they host the Miami Marlins in the second contest of a three-game series.
The Yankees are 6-1 for the second time in three seasons and will seek their first 7-1 start since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. They have won three straight games.
New York pitched to a 1.01 ERA on a six-game road trip while getting on base at only a .287 clip.
“It’s early, but you love the fact that you get off to this kind of start because wins are precious,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
On Friday, the Yankees earned an 8-2 victory by mixing six hits with 11 walks while stealing five bases. Constantly getting on base in their first home game since Game 4 of the American League Division Series against Toronto last October raised New York’s on-base percentage to .311.
“I loved our at-bats all day,” Boone said. “We couldn’t break it open for a while, but I thought everyone up and down (had good at-bats). I thought the bottom of the order did a really good job of controlling the zone.”
New York’s Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer in the first inning, drove in three runs and reached base four times. Judge went 3-for-20 on the road trip, and his on-base percentage climbed from .160 to .267.
Ben Rice homered, drove in three runs and is 9-for-22 (.409) so far.
The Marlins took their second loss of the opening week after hitting .290 and allowing nine walks in their 5-1 start against the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox.
“We were probably fortunate to be … in the game with the amount of free passes that we gave.” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said Friday. “Ultimately, you put yourself behind the 8-ball. They came through with a couple of people [on base] late in the game to put it out of reach. It wasn’t a struggle for us before today, but today it just was.”
Xavier Edwards and Owen Caissie homered, but Miami finished with just four hits and had only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position.
Edwards had two of Miami’s hits and is 11-for-26 so far after hitting .283 last season and .328 in 2024. He also has scored a run in each game this season.
New York’s pitching has allowed eight runs over the first seven games, matching the 2002 San Francisco Giants and 1993 Atlanta Braves for fewest runs by any team through the first seven games.
Ryan Weathers (0-0, 2.08 ERA) will make his home debut after being acquired from the Marlins on Jan.13. The left-hander took a no-decision Monday when he allowed a run on four hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss against the Seattle Mariners.
Weathers was acquired after going 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA in eight starts for the Marlins last season.
After Eury Perez issued a career-high four walks in four innings, right-hander Max Meyer (0-0, 5.40 ERA) will start for the Marlins on Saturday and face the Yankees for the first time.
Meyer did not allow a run in three spring training starts and allowed three runs on five hits in five innings of a no-decision March 29 against the Colorado Rockies.
-Field Level Media
