Max Fried threw 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball, Trent Grisham highlighted a five-run second with a two-run triple and the New York Yankees spoiled the managerial debut of Tony Vitello with a 7-0 romp over the host San Francisco Giants on Opening Night of the 2026 season.
Ryan McMahon had a two-run single, while Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Wells collected a pair of hits apiece for the Yankees on a night when the star attractions – Aaron Judge and Logan Webb – both struggled.
Judge struck out four times, one shy of his career-high, including in the gamebreaking second inning, which Stanton ignited innocently enough with a one-out single.
Webb then hit Jazz Chisholm Jr. with a pitch, after which Jose Caballero opened the season’s scoring with an RBI single and McMahon followed with his two-run single, making it 3-0.
Wasting no time, Wells then hit Webb’s next pitch for a single and Grisham launched the following delivery to the fence in right-center field, plating McMahon and Wells with the fourth and fifth runs.
The Yankees tacked on in the fifth on an RBI single by Stanton and a throwing error by Giants shortstop Willy Adames on a potential double-play groundball by Chisholm.
Staked to a big lead, Fried coasted, allowing just a one-out single by Rafael Devers in the first inning and two-out single by Heliot Ramos in the fourth. Last year’s 19-game winner was pulled one batter into the seventh after throwing 86 pitches.
Fried (1-0) walked one – the first batter he faced, Luis Arraez – and struck out four.
Jake Bird, Brent Headrick and Camilo Doval combined for the final eight outs, giving the Yankees their first Opening Day shutout since beating the Giants 5-0 in New York three years ago.
Judge finished 0-for-5, capping his night with a groundout to third in the ninth, his first Opening Day without a hit in 10 such games.
Hoping to deliver a win for Vitello, the first major league manager with no previous professional playing or coaching experience, Webb (0-1) was pulled after five innings, charged with seven runs (six earned) on nine hits. He walked one and struck out seven.
– Field Level Media
