NEW YORK — Game 2 didn’t go according to plan.
Clarke Schmidt struggled in his season debut in the Yankees’ 7-5 loss to the Giants on Saturday at Yankee Stadium. The right-hander tossed 3 1/3 innings allowing five hits, three runs, walking one and striking out five.
The 27-year-old navigated through the first inning smoothly — allowing a walk but striking out two — displaying his newly developed cutter seven out of 19 pitches in the frame, however, it was rough sailing from there on out.
The right-hander threw 31 pitches in the second and then was bombarded in the fourth with a solo shot from Joc Pederson and a two-run blast from Brandon Crawford that gave the Giants a 3-2 lead and knocked him out of the game.
The Yankees’ bats didn’t go down quietly, registering 10 hits — and rallying late to make things interesting — but they had a lot of help from the Giants’ defense. The Bombers’ first run of the afternoon came when San Francisco’s starter Alex Cobb (3 2/3 IP, four hits, two earned runs and six strikeouts) fielded a comebacker from Giancarlo Stanton — who later hit his first homer of the season in the third — and tossed it away into center field, allowing Aaron Judge to score.
In the fifth, center fielder Mike Yastrzemski lost a line drive from DJ LeMahieu in the sun and allowed it to drop in over his head for a double and later scored on an Anthony Rizzo double tying the game at three. Rizzo’s double set up second and third with nobody out for Stanton, Josh Donaldson — who blasted his first homer in the bottom of the eight — and Gleyber Torres all failed to scratch across a run.
Michael King made his season debut relieving Wandy Peralta in the fifth and was the victim of a little dinking-and-dunking. King allowed two runs — without a ball leaving the infield — on four hits in 1 2/3 innings of work.
Anthony Volpe had his first big league blunder in the sixth during King’s battle. Former Yankee Thairo Estrada softly lined a shot to shortstop and the 21-year-old lost his footing, allowing the ball to fall and the Giants’ fifth run to score. However, it will hardly be remembered when thinking back on his second game in the bigs.
Volpe lined a shot through the left side for his first-career MLB hit and in typical fashion, swiped second base in his 2-for-4 performance.
Clay Holmes came on to try and keep the deficit at one in the top of the ninth. The right-hander surrendered an RBI double to Yastrzemski and an RBI single to Crawford giving the Giants a 7-4 lead entering the bottom of the ninth.
Camilo Doval came on in an attempt to shut the door and give the Yanks their first loss of the season. Volpe singled, LeMahieu walked and then Judge singled to cut the deficit to 7-5, setting up Rizzo as the go-ahead run with one out. Rizzo walked but Stanton grounded into a double-play to end the game.
The Bombers will call on Jhonny Brito Sunday afternoon in his MLB debut in the rubber match of the opening series.
