Giants make unwanted history in shutout loss to Yankees

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants did their best to erase Opening Night and start fresh on Opening Day. They redid the pomp and circumstance under a Friday afternoon sky. The starting lineups were introduced again, sans any comedians or cable cars.

The organization even went so far as to post a graphic on social media declaring Robbie Ray its “Opening Day starter,” despite Logan Webb’s shellacking two nights earlier.

The Giants’ Willy Adames and his teammates were held in check again against the Yankees. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Manager Tony Vitello joked before the game that the day served as a “mulligan” after their 7-0 loss Wednesday. Can he get another?

The Giants’ supposedly vaunted lineup that was held to three hits in their season opener produced just one in a 3-0 loss to Cam Schlittler and the Yankees. 

The shutout loss made history: Never in the 143-year existence of the Giants franchise, from New York to San Francisco, has the team been held scoreless its first two games of the season.

What it means

Vitello joined a long line of Giants managers to lose his debut. The list of skippers to fall to 0-2 gets slightly shorter, but the former Tennessee coach still has plenty of company.

There hasn’t been a Giants manager to start 1-0 since Felipe Alou in 2003, while Bruce Bochy and Gabe Kapler didn’t earn their first wins until their third games.

The Yankees’ Aaron Judge hit a home run Friday against the host Giants. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Who’s hot 

Hard contact was hard to come by against either starting pitcher, as the two lineups combined to produce two balls in play at 100 mph or harder through the first five innings.

Then Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton did their thing.

Judge, held hitless through his first seven at-bats of the season, unloaded on the third straight middle-in fastball he saw from Ray and planted it halfway up the left field bleachers.

Two batters later, Stanton found a similar landing spot for a solo shot and, all of a sudden, the Giants were down 3-0.

Besides Judge’s homer and the double from Paul Goldschmidt that preceded it, Ray limited the Yankees to only three runners over 5 ⅓ innings in his season debut.

Stanton’s home run, off Jose Butto, represented the only run the Giants’ bullpen has surrendered in 7 ⅔ innings to start the season.

Schlittler was operating under a strict pitch count but still managed to pitch into the sixth inning while retiring all but one of the 17 Giants batters he faced.

Who’s not

Through 18 innings, the Giants have produced a total of zero runs, four hits, four walks and 19 strikeouts. Their only hit to go for extra bases was a soft double Heliot Ramos poked down the right field line in the second inning. As a team, they are batting .068 (4 for 59).

Their defense, which was a focus in the spring, continued to disappoint. A sloppy effort in their season opener was followed up by more misplays Friday.

Willy Adames should have been awarded his second error of the season on a would-be double play grounder that resulted in no outs after he had trouble transferring the ball from his glove and then misfired to Casey Schmitt at first base.

Luis Arraez didn’t have the range to stop another ground ball from Jazz Chisholm Jr. from making it into right field. And Jung Hoo Lee, new to Oracle Park’s unique right field dimensions, misjudged a hit into the corner that allowed Goldschmidt to stretch a single into a double.

The Giants were forced to bring the infield in on multiple occasions, and Arraez at least acquitted himself well in those situations, cleanly fielding two sharply hit ground balls and making accurate throws home to prevent two more runs from scoring.

Up next

The Giants will seek to salvage one win in their opening series behind RHP Tyler Mahle, who will make his club debut against RHP Will Warren.

First pitch is scheduled for 4:35 p.m., nationally televised on Fox.