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Through his first five games over two seasons, Clarke Schmidt pitched to a 6.39 ERA.
After his first six major league appearances with the Braves, Max Fried’s ERA sat at 4.70.
Gerrit Cole was merely promising with the Pirates before blossoming into Gerrit Cole with the Astros.
It can take pitchers a handful of starts or a handful of years to learn how to consistently retire major league hitters.
It is possible the education of Will Warren is unfolding rapidly.
The best development of May for the Yankees has been the development of a player no longer a prospect and no longer looking like a project, Warren taking steps toward growing into a legitimate, reliable major league pitcher.
The righty looked like one again Tuesday, when he struck out a career-best 10 and shut down the Rangers in a 5-2, series-opening victory in front of 40,343 in The Bronx.
The Yankees (28-19) moved to a season-best nine games over .500 and won for a ninth time in their past 12, beating Aaron Boone’s brother (Bret, the Rangers hitting coach) and Mark Leiter Jr.’s cousin (Jack, a Rangers starter).
They did so behind a big day from Ben Rice, home run No. 16 from Aaron Judge and a 25-year-old looking more refined with every outing.
Warren had been crushed in six games last season and held a precarious rotation spot after seven games this year, when his ERA read 5.65.
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Over his past three games, he has looked like a pitcher who is figuring it out.
Against the A’s, Mariners and Rangers, Warren has let up three runs in 18 innings (1.50 ERA).
Wednesday, he scattered five hits over 5 ²/₃ scoreless innings while surrendering little hard contact, walking just one and able to pitch his way out of the few jams that surfaced.
He cruised through four innings before allowing the first Ranger to reach scoring position, Jonah Heim sending a two-out double into the right field corner.
A calm Warren then dotted a four-seamer at the corner of the zone to punch out Sam Haggerty.
An inning later, the Rangers loaded the bases fairly incidentally: Warren lost Wyatt Langford on a seven-pitch walk, and Josh Jung and Adolis García blooped well-placed singles that created trouble.
With his 101st and final pitch of the game, Warren used one of his better sinkers to catch Marcus Semien looking and was pulled one out from escaping the danger, walking off to a standing ovation.
On this night, Warren had plenty of help — which included the Yankees’ Leiter, who turned to a disappearing splitter to strike out Joc Pederson and get out of the bases-loaded jam.
The support for Warren began earlier.
Rice cranked his 10th homer of the season, a no-doubt shot into the second deck in right, to begin the Yankees scoring in the second inning.
The catcher/first baseman — who has taken pregame ground balls at third base, inspiring some curiosity concerning whether he can squeeze into another position — reminded why it might be worth exploring every avenue to shoehorn his bat into the lineup.
In the fourth, after a rocket single then steal by Judge and a bloop hit from Cody Bellinger, Rice sent a bullet to the center field warning track that Haggerty stuck out his mitt and caught with a tumble, a nice play that became a sacrifice fly for Rice’s second RBI.
The Yankees added on in the sixth, when Anthony Volpe flicked an RBI single into center, and tacked on in the eighth, when Judge visited the short porch in right for a two-run shot.
As the game ended, his 16 dingers only trailed Shohei Ohtani’s 17 for the major league lead.
The offensive supply became more than incidental when Ian Hamilton gave up a two-run homer to Heim with two outs in the ninth.
But Luke Weaver entered and recorded the final out for save No. 6 to ensure Warren’s work mattered.
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