Everything’s been coming up Yankees for the first week or so of the 2026 season. After a 5-1 West Coast trip to open the season that went about as good as anyone could’ve asked for, the Bronx Bombers came home to face an equally hot Miami Marlins team that was feeling good about themselves after a 5-1 start of their own, all at home.
Although the Marlins struck first off Will Warren early, the 26-year-old settled in and delivered a solid outing that would be more than enough for the Yankees. Aaron
Judge set the tone with an early home run and had his first multi-hit game of the season, while Ben Rice shook off three strikeouts to start the game by adding much-appreciated insurance late to continue his blisteringly hot start, as the Yankees took the series opener on Friday afternoon, 8-2.
The very start of the game didn’t go so hot for the Yankees, as the first roll call of the season was rudely interrupted by a Xavier Edwards solo home run to right field to give Miami a quick 1-0 lead. Warren, unfazed by the quick deficit he faced, rebounded to get the next two hitters.
Of course, that lead didn’t last too long. Trent Grisham worked a leadoff walk off 22-year-old fireballer Eury Pérez, and just three pitches later, the captain rang in 2026 at Yankee Stadium with a monstrous two-run shot to left to flip the scoreboard and make it 2-1 Yankees. Statcast says it only went 378 feet, but it sure didn’t look like it.
Warren settled in and pitched a clean second with a pair of strikeouts. In the bottom half, the Yankees struck for another two runs without recording a hit. Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jose Caballero, Ryan McMahon, and Grisham all worked walks, with Chisholm and Caballero contributing to Pérez’s meltdown by stealing three bases between them. Already allowing one run to score, Pérez plunked Judge on the first pitch to make it 4-1. With the bases juiced and only one out, the young righty finally found his composure and retired the next two to get out of trouble.
Miami went down in order in both the third and fourth innings against Warren, who looked composed on the mound even when Liam Hicks almost took his head off with a hard liner that ended in a 6-3 groundout. Chisholm doubled in the third and got to third on a long flyout from Austin Wells, but was stranded when a push bunt by Caballero was snuffed out by the Marlins’ defense.
The Fish finally was able to take a chunk off of Warren in the fifth, as Owen Caissie, the centerpiece of the Edward Cabrera trade, smashed his second home run of the season to right-center to cut it to 4-2. While Warren sat down the last two hitters to get through the fifth, it marked the first time that a Yankees starter had allowed multiple runs in a game. In case you weren’t keeping track, this is the seventh game of the year.
The Yankees weren’t very good at ABS today, as Cody Bellinger’s narrow miss in the fifth had the team out of challenges for the first time all year. He made up for it with a double off new Marlins’ pitcher Tyler Phillips, but he was stranded.
Warren got the first two outs of the sixth before a pair of ground ball singles ended his day, with the finishing blow being a swinging bunt by former Yankees’ prospect Agustin Ramirez. It was a solid day for Warren, who was a split second from a quality start but went 5.2 good innings without walking a batter. Tim Hill came on to face the lefty and did Tim Hill things, inducing an inning-ending groundout.
A very similar rally to the one in the second started in the sixth. Wells walked, Caballero reached on an E5, and some good baserunning set the team up with second and third with one out and the top of the order up. Of course, they didn’t get a hit, but they got a run. After Judge walked, Phillips spiked a pitch in the dirt for a run-scoring wild pitch to make it 5-2.
Jake Bird got the seventh for the Yankees and continued an impressive start to the season with a powerful 1-2-3 inning. The Marlins went to Michael Petersen after our first “God Bless America” of the season and were rudely greeted by Rice, who bounced back after striking out in his first three at-bats by thumping a hard liner into the short porch for his second homer of the season. 110.9 mph and 353 feet later, it’s 6-2 Yanks.
Brent Headrick and his curious reverse splits pitched the eighth and tore through 8-9-1 in the Marlins order with a pair of strikeouts. We then got a pretty awkward bottom of the eighth, where Grisham walked, and Judge singled him to third, but a bizarre collision led to Grisham’s foot briefly coming off the bag and allowed Leo Jiménez to tag him in the ankle, ruling him out. Not to worry, as Bellinger walked and Rice finally got the Yankees’ first hit with runners in scoring position by drilling a two-run double off the right-field wall to make it 8-2. They finish the day 1-for-13, despite scoring eight runs.
Unfortunately, we still don’t get to see Cade Winquest’s MLB debut, so it was Ryan Yarbrough who made his season debut in the ninth. Edwards bidded for his second extra base hit of the day to start the inning, only to be robbed by an acrobatic catch from Bellinger that even shocked him. After plunking Ramirez, Yarbrough made up for it by picking him off second base to get the second out, before inducing a game-ending flyout to lock down the win.
The Yankees will look for their fourth consecutive win and another series victory in the middle game against the Marlins tomorrow. Southpaw Ryan Weathers faces off against his former teammate in Miami, righty Max Meyer, tomorrow at 7:05pm ET on YES.
