About Yesterday: Yankees 8, Giants 4

On this day in 1978 , Reggie! bars, candy named for Yankee outfielder and 1977 World Series hero Reggie Jackson, rained down from the stands during the team's home opener. Here's the SABR games writeup: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-13-1978-how-sweet-it-is-reggie-jacksons-candy-bar-makes-debut/ Our esteemed editor Paul once reviewed this tasty treat: https://www.startspreadingthenews.blog/post/quick-review-the-reggie-bar

Quick Stats: The Yankees are 8-6 on the season. They are in first place in the American League East. Congrats to Will Warren on getting his first Major League win! The rookie righthander was solid - five innings, two hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. Yankee leadoff hitters are mashing a collective .340/.450/.620 over the first couple weeks of the season. Big Story: The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Cody Bellinger tripled in Aaron Judge, and then Paul Goldschmidt lofted a sacrifice fly. They gave it right back When Wilmer Flores smacked a two-run homer to right center off of Yankee starter Will Warren.

Things stated the same until the Yanks added five runs in the bottom of the fifth, a solid and steady rally with four singles, a double, a walk, and a sacrifice fly. Jasson Dominguez had two-run single. After taking the lead, Aaron Boone pulled Warren and turned to his bullpen. The Giants came right back and loaded the bases against Fernando Cruz. The Yankee reliever almost go out of the inning unscathed, but Flores came through again with a two run single to cut the lead to 7-4. Boone then turned to Luke Weaver, who struck out Sam Huff to end the threat. Ben Rice homered in the bottom of the sixth, his fourth of the season, to bump the lead to 8-4. The Yankee pen bent but didn't break the rest of the way. Weaver, Mark Leiter Jr. , and Devin Williams all put two runners on the base in each of the last three innings, but all got out of their jams for scoreless frames. Williams gave another vibe of "here we go again" when he walked Mike Yastrzemski and allowed a double to Willy Adames to open the ninth, but struck out the next two batters and retired Heliot Ramos on an easy grounder to close out the win. Yankees win, 8-4. Player of the Game: Luke Weaver. The game had that slipping away feel when he came on in the sixth, got the strikeout to get out of the inning, and put a zero up in the seventh. Notable Performances: Dominguez had two hits and two RBI....Bellinger also had two hits and two RBI - the Yanks need to get him going in the middle of the batting order...Take away his implosion against Arizona, and Mark Leiter Jr. has a 0.00 ERA in six appearances. Better to Forget: Jazz Chisholm was hitless and committed an error on the sixth which contributed to mess and the San Francisco runs. They Said It: "I've learned a lot. There's a lot of guys in this clubhouse to lean on and learn information from" - Will Warren on his growth from last year. My Take: I'm going to go full "get off my lawn" and say that the Yankees playing the Giants in April still feels strange. I feel better to get that off my chest. Could we have watched a turning point for Devin Williams? It's like we watched him change from a terrible pitcher to...Devin Williams in that the ninth inning! Yesterday's up and down the lineup performance felt really, really good. It's waaaaay to early to compare this team to the two-headed monster offense of last year, but if the balance continues hopefully the team can avoid some of the really low lows of the recent past. How about Ben Rice! The Yankee DH/first baseman is batting .310/.431/.690 with four home runs in 13 games. In my outrageous comparison of the day, let's look at two rookie year stat lines: Player A - .179/.263/.345 Player B - .171/.264/.349 Player A is Aaron Judge in 2016. Player B is Ben Rice in 2024. Now, I'm sure plenty of folks will remind me of comparison this if Rice starts to struggle, but it's really interesting to look at both rookie years and their follow-up seasons. How great will it be if Rice is the real deal. Like Judge, he's also a real easy guy to root for. Taking about rookies, here's hoping Warren's outing is a step forward for him. The Yanks need him. Coming in to the game, Yankee pitching ranked 25th in ERA across MLB, with only one quality start (six IP, three runs), last in all of baseball. It makes an 8-6 record feel pretty good. Next Up: Win the series! Carlos Rodon (1-2, 5.19) takes the hill tomorrow against Logan Webb (1-0, 1.89) at 1:35 pm.