April 18, 2026

45 thoughts on “Yankees (5-1) vs. Marlins (5-1), Friday, April 3, 2026, 1:35PM EDT”

    1. Reminiscent of McGwire’s 2001 (.187/.316/.492, 101 OPS+, 29 homers out of his 56 hits).
      Thankfully it’s just a small sample so far and (knock on wood) Judge doesn’t already have a career-ending leg injury, so there’s hope that he’ll regress a bit. But his stance and approach do look different this year – no longer opposite-field – and I suspect he’ll continue to have a much lower average and more strikeouts than he did the last 4 years.

    1. If that slider had any break at all, he would likely have whiffed or at best hit a weak grounder.

    1. Yeah, probably happened because he regretted not challenging strike 3 in his first AB.

    1. plus an RBI walk and an RBI HBP, but yeah, feels like they’ve left a lot on table.

  14. Ryan McMahon is the poster child for what is wrong with baseball contracts for all but the real star players. A guy who never had a OPS+ higher than 98 while playing in Colorado making $16 million a year.

  15. While Judge is approaching the slash line from Mark McGwire’s final (age 37) season, McMahon is approaching the slash line from my final (age 13) season. I went 1-for-21 on the year, with a bunch of walks; the one hit should probably have been ruled an error on the third baseman, but my dad was keeping score that day.
    Hmm, I guess that makes me a nepo baby. So maybe the Yankees will hire me.

    1. Up 6 in the top of the 9th, and still no Winquest.

      I think Yarbrough has also not pitched much, so I guess I don’t HATE it (but yes, I pretty much hate it).

    2. I suppose the concept of a Win Quest might be incomprehensible to Boone.

    1. Could see some regression with the current rotation; but replace Warren, Weathers, and Gil with Cole, Rodon, and Elmer, and 150-12 seems fair.

  21. Yay win! Yay Rice and Judge!
    Yay taking walks and not giving them up.

    And Warren did okay. Next to Fried and Schlittler he seems utterly unimpressive, but 3 ER in 10+ IP is not a terrible beginning to the season.

  23. Lagrange with a bit of a struggle in game 1: 3.1ip 1r 1h 5BB 2K

    Game 2 The Martian with a home run, 2nd in 2 games 333/1067. Spence new stance and all 2Ks/2ABs that’s 9/10 182/614

    Martian’s home run off a LHP

  24. “But his stance and approach do look different this year – no longer opposite-field – and I suspect he’ll continue to have a much lower average and more strikeouts than he did the last 4 years.”

    I mean, if YOU can see it, how can THEY *not* see it?

    2. I mean, if YOU can see it, how can THEY *not* see it?

      It’s hard for criticism to reach the captain when the whole organization is full of YES men.

    3. (It was a similar issue with telling Jeter about his defense. Though it did make him a bit better defensively, it also made him defensive.)

  26. That looked like a fun game.
    The crazy catch by Bellinger was just… crazy!
    And man, Rice looks so good, if it’s anywhere NEAR for real… man, oh man.

    1. Bellinger’s catch looked like some Force Sensitive shit. Like he’s Darth Jar Jar or something.

  29. Katie S
    Yankees Left-handed Batters with at least .400 BA, .500 OBP and .860 SLG (min. 25 PA) in player’s first 6 games of a season:

    Ben Rice (2026)
    Yogi Berra (1956)
    Lou Gehrig (1932)
    Babe Ruth (1932, 1921)

  30. A few of Lombard’s hits seemed kinda lucky, even the HR was a short porch thing, though that may play in the Bronx. I understand giving him another year to develop, though his offense can’t possibly be worse than McMahon’s right now.

    Dominguez’s HR was from the right side, and crushed. Very encouraging.

    Jones ended up with a couple doubles late in the game, but one was off a position player. Still, good opposite field hitting.

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