NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 02: Ross Stripling #48 of the San Francisco Giants pitches during the first inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on April 02, 2023 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK — Ross Stripling once likened his over-the-top pitching motion to the “Iron Mike” machines that serve batting practice in cages across the country. Making his Giants debut in their series finale against the Yankees, that comparison landed a little too literally, as Stripling more or less served the same purpose for Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka.
The trio of Yankees tagged Stripling for three home runs, including a mammoth blast from Stanton that cleared the batter’s eye in center field, while the Giants’ new right-hander otherwise struggled to execute in a 6-0 loss, the second time the Giants were shut out in three games as they dropped their season-opening series.
“I’m not really discouraged by it,” Stripling said, adding he felt fine physically. “But I know it could’ve been better, as well.”
It was an uncharacteristic introduction to the San Francisco fanbase for Stripling, who allowed four runs on six hits, walked two batters and hit another, and struck out three over five rocky innings. He was one of two free-agent starters the Giants signed this winter, inking a two-year, $25 million deal.
While setting career-bests in innings (134⅓) and ERA (3.01) with Toronto in 2022, Stripling surrendered only 12 home runs and issued only a few more walks (20), two qualities that made him attractive to the Giants. Manager Gabe Kapler compared his ability to locate his pitches to Arizona’s Merrill Kelly, who gave the Giants fits last season, and he lived up the billing in spring training, issuing only one free pass in 23 Cactus League innings.
Before he had recorded three outs, Stripling had already exceeded his number of spring walks and was a tenth of the way to his total from the previous season. He added a hit batsman to his line in the fifth, plunking Anthony Rizzo before picking him off first base.
“I thought my stuff was good,” Stripling said. “I was just kind of a little bit off with some sliders, a little bit down with some changeups, which led to some longer ABs. I think if I could’ve been just one more notch dialed in, it could’ve been a better outing.”
In a seven-batter span between the third and fourth innings, Stripling matched a career-high in home run pitches.
Leading off the third, Judge swung at the second pitch he saw and sent a line drive zipping (114 mph off the bat) into the left-field seats for his second home run of the series. Stanton followed two batters later, after Brandon Crawford wasn’t able to corral a hard-hit grounder by Rizzo, with a gargantuan two-run shot, a blast that left the bat at 118 mph and traveled 485 feet.
Higashioka led off the fourth with a towering fly ball that LaMonte Wade Jr. could only watch fly into the first rows of seats beyond the left-field wall.
“I feel like the Higashioka one (a fastball high outside the strike zone) was a good pitch,” Stripling said. “I was trying to throw a fastball up there and he just tomahawked it up into the air. … I’d definitely rather have the two sliders back. They were just bad sliders to pretty much the two strongest hitters in baseball, and they didn’t miss them.”
Stanton’s homer was the third-longest hit at new Yankee Stadium since Statcast began tracking data in 2015, landing just shy of the newly installed pitch clock above the center field concourse.
“I thought the wind was blowing out a little bit, so maybe 460 on a normal day,” Stripling joked. “There’s always some sliver of doubt that it won’t get out. Basically the second you see it fly into the crowd, you look away and get a new ball or whatever. You always at least watch it, but you don’t appreciate it until later. In real time, you’re just pissed.”
With Joey Bart placed on the injured list before the game, it was the Giants’ first chance to see Rule 5 pick Blake Sabol behind the plate.
In a two-run seventh that extended the Yankees’ lead, Sean Hjelle spiked three pitches in the dirt, which all got past the rookie catcher, while New York executed a double steal that went uncontested and put both runners who would eventually cross the plate in scoring position.
“There were two that Hjelle yanked that no catcher in baseball is going to be able to get their body in front of,” Kapler said. “There was one he tried to backhand that he could’ve gotten his body in front of. … I thought he did a fine job back there.”
It was an odd appearance for Hjelle, too, after he was added to the roster before the game in Bart’s spot. After impressing during spring with not only increased velocity but his ability to locate it, Hjelle walked three batters and was credited with three wild pitches in two innings of work. He managed to allow two runs without surrendering a hit, which Kapler admitted was “not as good as he had been in camp for us.”
“It wasn’t like I was throwing left-handed,” Hjelle said, adding he didn’t feel anything drastically off with his mechanics. “Although three walks in one inning, maybe.”
When the Giants finally threatened for the first time in the fifth, after Thairo Estrada legged out an infield single and Wade was beaned in the foot, Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis each watched 99- and 100-mph sinkers from Jimmy Cordero go by for strike three. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position for Joc Pederson, who popped out to right to end the inning and let out a vocal expletive as he stomped back to the dugout.
Facing rookie Jhony Brito, the Yankees’ No. 27 prospect according to MLB.com, making his major-league debut, the Giants mustered three hits, put runners in scoring position twice and struck out 12 times. It marked the first time in franchise history the Giants were shut out multiple times in the opening series of a season, after falling 5-0 on Opening Day.
In three games, they have struck out 41 times, only tied for the MLB lead with two teams that have played an additional game. It is their most strikeouts in a three-game stretch to start a season, while only four other three-game spans in team history have featured more whiffs.
“You go through a three-game stretch, or a five- or a 10-game stretch, and you’re going to have times where you strike out more,” Kapler said. “We always want to be putting the ball in play with authority. It’s the number one goal. We weren’t able to do that as much as we needed to in this series.”
Originally published at Evan Webeck