Giants storm out of the gate on rainy night in NYC

A five-run first inning chased Yankees starter Marcus Stroman and gave the Giants a big cushion for a game that was called for rain in the 6th inning.

Start spreading the news! The Giants are hitting today! Everyone in the lineup wanted to be a part of it in New York, New York Friday night, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Yankees, 9-1, in a game called after 5+ innings due to rain.

The decision to suspend the game was made easier by an offensive explosion from the Giants, a tough four-inning start from Robbie Ray, and Yankees reliever Yoendrys Gomez walking four batters in the top of the sixth inning while complaining about the wet baseball.

Eight members of the Giants lineup either scored or drove in a run, and the one who didn’t, Tyler Fitzgerald, went 2-for-3. The Giants drew 11 walks, hit three doubles and a home run, and scored nine runs, all in 5 ²⁄₃ innings in a game that ended with the bases loaded.

After the start of the game was delayed by 26 minutes by some miserable New York City weather, the Giants’ bats delivered a storm of their own. Mike Yastrzemski led off the game with a double, Willy Adames walked, and Jung Hoo Lee hit his first home run of the 2025 season. Wearing a cold-weather mask that covered most of his head, Lee hit a Marcus Stroman sinker 387 feet over the right-center wall.

A rattled Stroman lost his control, walking Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos, throwing only two pitches out of 11 in the strike zone. Stroman got ahead 1-2 to LaMonte Wade, Jr., but “La Guardia Lamonte” worked a full count and then doubled in two runs.

That would do it for the first-inning scoring, but the Giants would chase Stroman after a two-out single from Tyler Fitzgerald brought the inning back to Yaz. Stroman’s line:

0.2 innings, five runs, all earned, four hits, three walks, one strikeout.

The Yankees got on the board in the second inning, on a play where the Giants and Robbie Ray got lucky. Anthony Volpe walked on a 3-2 count and stole second, Jazz Chisholm struck out on a 3-2 count, and Austin Wells came inches away from a home run with a double that bounced off the top of the outfield wall. Thanks to the rain, it was technically a hit that splashed, but not a Splash Hit.

But after another full-count walk, Ray got Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt to fly out. While Ray got into deep counts the whole game — he threw at least five pitches to 12 of the 18 hitters he faced — Ray minimized the damage. He walked four Yankees, including Aaron Judge twice, but he struck out seven, and only yielded two hits, one of which was a grounder to third too wet for Matt Chapman to throw swiftly to first.

And due to an obscure rule that Jon Miller presciently pointed out on the telecast, Ray was able to earn his third win while working only four innings, thanks to the game being called after five innings.

Reliever Ryan Yarbrough came in and settled things down for the Yankees, working 2.2 innings and giving up only a hit and a walk. With Tyler Fitzgerald on second base with one out, Ian Hamilton relieved Yarbrough and got a rare 5-3-6 double play, when Goldschmidt nailed Fitzgerald trying to advance to third, something you really aren’t supposed to risk with two outs. Of course, Fitzgerald stole second to begin with, so his baserunning was a net neutral on the inning, if ultimately embarrassing.

Hamilton didn’t last long, as Lee tormented him out of the game. First, Lee fouled off three pitches on his way to drawing a nine-pitch walk. Then Hamilton seemed distracted by the threat of Lee stealing and issued Chapman one of Chappie’s three walks.

After Ramos struck out looking, Wade fought back from being down 0-2 to get a nine-pitch walk off of reliever Tim Hill. Then Lee got a great jump on a Wilmer Flores groundout that only went about 60 feet to score the Giants’ sixth run. Hill’s next pitch nearly drilled Patrick Bailey, going all the way to the backstop and scoring Chapman from third. Bailey drilled Hill’s second pitch into right field for an RBI double.

Spencer Bivens struck out two in an uneventful bottom of the fifth that made the game official, then Wade ended the scoring with a bases-loaded walk for his third RBI.

While it was a shame to see a game end with the bases loaded and the Giants swinging the bat so well, the team won’t mind getting a short game at the start of a 10-game, 10-day road trip. The Giants don’t get an off-day until April 28, so they got the best of both worlds: A rainout that still counts as a W. The bullpen is preserved, everybody padded their stats, and Bob Melvin can get a full night’s sleep before Saturday’s 3:05 local time game.

Tune in tomorrow when we’ll learn if torpedo bats still work when it’s wet.