SAN FRANCISCO — The final score from the first series of the year at Oracle Park: Opening Days 2, Giants 1.

The Giants went down quietly again on Saturday, losing 3-1 to the New York Yankees and getting swept in the first series of the Tony Vitello era. They became the first MLB team in a decade to score just one run through the first three games of a season. 

After getting shut out in back-to-back games to start the year, the Giants fell behind 2-0 in the third. But they immediately struck back with their first run of the year.

Jung Hoo Lee led off the bottom of the inning with a double and Matt Chapman drove a single up the middle, snapping a streak of 20 scoreless innings to start the year. It was the franchise’s longest scoreless stretch to start a season since 1909. 

The Yankees padded their lead with a solo homer from Aaron Judge in the fifth, but the Giants had a golden opportunity to answer back an inning later. They had runners on the corners with no outs, but Willy Adames struck out and Harrison Bader bounced into a double play. 

ABS helped ignite a rally in the ninth. Heliot Ramos appeared to have struck out on a David Bednar curveball, but he challenged right away and a review showed that the pitch was 1.1 inches off the edge of the zone. 

Ramos went on to draw a walk and Adames followed with a single, his first hit of the year. After a strikeout from Bader, Patrick Bailey hit into a double play, ending the series. 

The New Guy

Tyler Mahle went four innings in his first start for the Giants, allowing two earned on five hits and a walk. He struck out five, four of them looking. 

There was some hard early contact against Mahle, but you could argue that he also deserved better. With two outs in the third, he got a grounder from Cody Bellinger, but second baseman Luis Arráez couldn’t quite get to it. Ben Rice followed with a double off the wall that scored two, but Rice was cut down at the plate moments later by a strong throw by Ramos. 

Mahle showed good velocity — topping out at 94.8 mph — and leaned heavily on his splitter. He was a touch behind in spring training because of an early illness, which might have explained the early hook. There was also a pocket of lefties coming up … 

All Rise (Again)

The Giants picked up Ryan Borucki late in the spring to give them another weapon against lefties, and last year, few were better. Borucki held lefties to a .117 average and .379 OPS. The flip side of that? Righties had an OPS of 1.021. 

Given all of that info, it made perfect sense for Borucki to replace Mahle with Austin Wells and Trent Grisham due up first in the fifth inning. It made little sense for him to throw Judge a strike, especially after he got two quick outs. 

Judge demolished a hanging cutter at the top of the zone, picking up his second homer of the series and fifth in six career games at Oracle Park. Borucki then got Cody Bellinger to pop up to end the inning. 

Hot Start

The conventional wisdom coming into the season was that the bullpen would be the weak spot of the roster, and it wasn’t just fans and the media saying that. Giants officials were worried about the group all spring. 

A bright spot so far: The bullpen (a question mark all offseason and spring) has allowed just two runs in 12 2/3 innings.

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) March 29, 2026

In the first series, though, that was the best unit on the team. All eight relievers saw the mound in the first two games and only one gave up a run. Six relievers pitched Saturday, and the bullpen combined to allow just two hits and one run over five innings. 

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