SAN FRANCISCO — There was South Carolina and LSU in 2018. There was Auburn and Arkansas in 2019. There was Missouri and, again, Arkansas in 2023.
Tony Vitello’s Tennessee teams were swept only six times during his eight seasons at the program. In five of those seasons, his Volunteers avoided being swept altogether. Three games into his professional career, Vitello already finds himself on the wrong side of a dusting.
With a 3-1 loss on Saturday at Oracle Park, the Giants were swept by the New York Yankees to open the Vitello era. This marks the first time in franchise history that the Giants opened a season by scoring just one run in their first three games.
The Giants’ offense finally had some semblance of life after being shut out in back-to-back games to start the season, but their nine hits yielded one lone run as they grounded into four double plays, which included Patrick Bailey’s game-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Heliot Ramos began the bottom of the ninth inning by drawing a leadoff walk against Yankees closer David Bednar, then Willy Adames followed up with a single that put runners on first and second with no outs. San Francisco, though, couldn’t capitalize. Harrison Bader sturck out, then Bailey grounded into a double play to end the game.
After rolling out identical lineups for the first two games of the season, Vitello shuffled San Francisco’s lineup against New York’s Will Warren. Jung Hoo Lee moved up from fifth to leadoff. Luis Arraez moved from leadoff to third. Willy Adames dropped from cleanup to sixth, and Heliot Ramos moved from sixth to fifth.
The Giants made noise in the bottom of the first but again failed to score their first run of the season. Luis Arraez and Rafael Devers hit back-to-back singles, then Arraez stole third before Will Warren delivered a pitch. Arraez even tried to throw off Warren by faking a steal of home before scrambling and diving back to third base. Heliot Ramos worked a 10-pitch at-bat, staying alive by fouling off four pitches, but struck out swinging on an elevated heater to end the inning.
The Yankees, as they did on Wednesday and Friday, stuck first. Trent Grisham’s walk and Cody Bellinger’s single set the table for Ben Rice’s two-run double off the fifth archway, giving New York a quick 2-0 lead. Giancarlo Stanton nearly tacked on a third run when he singled to left, but Ramos threw out Rice at the plate to end the inning.
By failing to score in the first and second, the Giants started their season with 20 consecutive scoreless innings, the longest such stretch since 1909. San Francisco snapped that skid in the top of the fifth inning when Matt Chapman singled home Jung Hoo Lee, who led off the frame with a double.
New York soon got that run back in the top of the fifth when Aaron Judge hit his second home run in as many days, a solo shot that hit the ambulance beyond the left-field wall and gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead.
The Giants had an opportunity to plate at least one run in the sixth when they put runners on first and third with no outs, but Willy Adames struck out swinging and Harrison Bader grounded into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Right-hander Tyler Mahle, making his Giants debut after signing a one-year, $10 million deal this offseason, allowed two runs over four innings with five strikeouts.