The story of the Yankees’ 2026 season so far has been all about the pitching. They opened the season with two shutouts, courtesy of Max Fried and Cam Schlittler. The second time through the rotation began on Tuesday night, and Fried continued his good work, once again not allowing a run.
That set the stage for Schlittler’s second start of the season. Much like Fried did, Schlittler followed a similar scrips to his first start of the season. In 6.1 innings, Schlittler allowed no runs on just two hits
and no walks, while striking out seven. His rise since his callup last season remains remarkable.
On the offensive side of things, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt led the way, each homering and driving home all five runs between them. As it turned out, the bullpen made it so that all the runs were needed, as Seattle threatened in the eighth and ninth innings. However, the efforts of Schlittler, Rice, and Goldschmidt proved to be enough as the Yankees took the series in Seattle with a 5-3 win over the Mariners.
The Yankees used a two-out rally to take an early lead in the first. While Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge went down in order, Cody Bellinger managed to keep the inning alive by working a walk. Then, he continued the Yankees’ aggressiveness on the basepaths early on this season, stealing second. That allowed him to score as Rice got one past Josh Naylor and into the right field corner for a RBI double.
George Kirby settled down for Seattle after that, but Schlittler was also dominating in the meantime. Him holding things down allowed the Yankees to eventually build on their lead, thanks to an unexpected source.
While Grisham led off the sixth inning with a walk, Kirby then got the next two outs. Once again though, the Yankees came through with two down. Rice kept the inning alive with a walk of his own, bringing Goldschmidt to the plate. Despite it being 2026 and Kirby being a right-handed pitcher, Goldschmidt managed to do the damage, hitting a three-run shot to increase the lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Schlittler retired Julio Rodríguez for a third time and was sitting on 79 pitches. At that point, Aaron Boone came out of the dugout and went to the bullpen, going with Fernando Cruz, who ended the inning without issue.
Camilo Doval entered for the eighth inning and got two outs, but also gave up a couple hits. He then walked Brendan Donovan on four pitches, which set up Cal Raleigh as the potential game-tying run. At that point, Boone decided to call on closer David Bednar. Bednar couldn’t fully escape the inning, as Raleigh got him for a two-run single, but he did strike out Rodríguez to keep the lead intact.
Right after that, the Yankees got some helpful insurance. Rice struck again, absolutely obliterating a home run to lead off the top of the ninth.
Bednar remained in for the bottom of the ninth, and did allow another run after giving up hits to Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone. Representing the game-tying run, Cole Young then made Bednar work, and eventually took an offering to deep right field. However, it stayed in play and eventually ended up in Judge’s glove for the final out of the game. The victory gave the Yankees a 5-1 record on their west coast swing and two series victories to start the new year.
With that, the Yankees have finally wrapped up their season-opening road trip. After getting tomorrow off, they’ll head to the Bronx for Friday’s home opener against the Marlins. Will Warren will get the start opposite Eury Pérez in that one.
