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Try it freeThe Yankees started the season with six wins in eight games, setting offensive records on the way.
But they entered another miserable, cold and wet afternoon in The Bronx on Saturday losers of four of five, with a battered rotation, a slumping offense and another defeat away from falling to .500.
A strong start from Will Warren and a five-run fifth inning, though, gave them a boost in an 8-4 win over the Giants, and the Yankees will look to win the series Sunday at the Stadium.
“We can bang,” Aaron Boone said of the offense that had been limited to 11 runs in the previous five games. “These guys can bang. It’s the big leagues. You’re gonna score two one day. You’re gonna score zero.”
Not Saturday, spurred by the top four in the lineup, who combined to go 6-for-17 with seven runs and five RBIs.
Still, they had to survive another scare from closer Devin Williams, who allowed a pair of baserunners in the ninth before retiring the heart of the Giants order.
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With the day starting with news that yet another starter, Marcus Stroman, was headed to the IL with knee inflammation and an already taxed bullpen, Warren made it through five innings and gave up just two runs, courtesy of a two-run, second-inning blast from ex-Met Wilmer Flores.
The Yankees offense, which got off to a fast start with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, added five more in the fifth, as the top half of the lineup beat up the Giants most of the afternoon.
“That’s how our lineup goes,” said Rice, looking comfortable in the leadoff spot again. “It’s contagious.”
Aaron Judge got the offense going in the first with a single up the middle with one out, a 115.2-mph shot that was his hardest-hit ball of the young season.
Cody Bellinger, in a 3-for-21 skid as he’s battled back tightness and food poisoning, followed with an opposite-field triple off the wall in left field that scored Judge for the game’s first run.
Hot-hitting Paul Goldschmidt then added another run with a sacrifice fly to right to score Bellinger and make it 2-0.
Warren gave up the two-run shot to Flores, which tied the game at 2-2, but the right-hander retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced following Flores’ homer before leaving after five innings and 91 pitches.
He earned his first major league win, striking out six and allowing just two hits and a pair of walks.
The Yankees took control with a five-run fifth, as the first five batters reached base and scored against Jordan Hicks.
Ben Rice smoked a leadoff single to center to start the inning, and Judge hammered a 112-mph rocket to left for another single.
Bellinger’s base hit to right-center scored Rice to put the Yankees up 3-2, and Goldschmidt’s ground-rule double to right brought in Judge for another run.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., hitless in his previous 20 at-bats, walked to end Hicks’ day.
Anthony Volpe drove a ball to the warning track in right-center for a sacrifice fly off Randy Rodriguez and Jasson Domínguez added a two-run single.
Fernando Cruz replaced Warren to start the sixth and allowed two unearned runs, with a Chisholm throwing error complicating matters.
Luke Weaver entered and got Sam Huff swinging to end the inning.
Rice’s fourth home run of the season to lead off the sixth off former Yankees IL regular Lou Trivino gave the Bombers more insurance.
Weaver kept the lead at four runs by fanning Chapman with runners on second and third to finish the seventh.
Mark Leiter Jr. pitched a scoreless eighth, and Williams, coming off a rough outing in Detroit, finished it in the ninth.
