Will Warren picked up his first career win as the Yankees took down the Giants 8-4

New York—It was raining in the Bronx again and 40 degrees at the first pitch in game two of this three-game set. Will Warren took the mound for the Yankees, and Jordan Hicks took the ball for the Giants, as the Yankees won 8-4 was the final score. 

The Yankees starter, Will Warren, worked around a two-out walk in the top half of the 1st inning and picked up a strikeout in the process.

The Yankees captain Aaron Judge picked up a one-out single in the bottom of the 1st inning off Giants starter Jordan Hicks. The next batter, center fielder Cody Bellinger, hit a rocket RBI triple off the wall in left field to make it a 1-0 Yankees lead. Then first basemen, Paul Goldschmidt, picked up a sacrifice fly to make it a 2-0 game. 

Giants infielder Wilmer Flores deposited a 2-run bomb into the Yankees bullpen in the top of the 2nd inning to tie this game up at 2-2, but Warren was able to stop the bleeding.

Yankees catcher Austin Wells picked up a one-out single in the bottom of the 2nd inning. A couple of batters later, third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera picked up a single, then the designated hitter Ben Rice Walked to load the bases for Aaron Judge. Judge grounded out to strand the bases loaded and end the inning. 

Warren started the top of the 3rd inning by picking up a strikeout as he set the Giants down in order. 

Yankees' second basemen smoked a ball in the bottom of the 3rd inning, but it was right at the Giants' first basemen, Lamate Wade Jr., for the final out of the inning. Jazz is now 0 for his last 20 at-bats as the Yankees went down in order. 

Will Warren retired the Giants in order in the top of the 4th inning, as he has settled in nicely since that 2nd inning. 

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe picked up a leadoff walk, but that would be all for the Yankees as they went down quietly in the bottom of the 4th inning. 

Will Warren snapped his streak of 10 straight Giants hitters retired in a row in the top of the 5th inning as he gave up a two-out walk. Warren picked up his sixth strikeout of the ballgame to end the frame.

Will Warren's final line: five innings pitched, two hits allowed, two earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts on 91 pitches. Warrens's stuff was very solid today he did a great job mixing in all five of his pitches as he threw his fastball 34% of the time, sweeper 27%, sinker 21%, changeup 11%, and the curveball 7% of the time. 

The Yankees started off the bottom of the 5th inning with a leadoff single to center from Ben Rice; then Judge hit a rocket single to left field to put two runners on base with nobody out. The next batter, Bellinger, picked up an RBI single, allowing Judge to go first to third and make it a 3-2 Yankees lead. Paul Goldschmidt then picked up an RBI ground roll double to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Volpe then picked up a sacrifice fly to make it a 5-2 Yankees lead. Then, a couple of batters later, the rookie left fielder Jason Dominguez picked up a huge two-out, 2-run single to make it a 7-2 ballgame. 

“The whole lineup was really just been putting together good at-bats.” Dominguez said, “When everyone is doing all the little things right, the runs are going to show up.”

In the top of the 6th inning, Fernando Cruz replaced Warren on the mound for the Yankees. Wilmer Flores picked up a big 2-run single with two outs, but both those runs would be unearned due to a costly error by Jazz at second base. Luke Weaver came in to replace Cruz on the mound and picked up the final out of the top half of the 6th to get out of trouble. 

In the bottom of the 6th inning, Ben Rice hit a rocket 113 mph off the bat for a lead-off home run, his fourth of the season, into the short porch in right field to make it an 8-4 Yankees lead. 

Luke Weaver worked into and out of trouble in the top of the 7th inning. His velocity has been noticeably down on his fastball at the start of the season. He was sitting 95-97 mph last year, but this year, he has been 91-93 mph. His changeup also has less downward bite to it. 

Jason Dominguez legged out an infield single with two outs in the bottom half of the 7th inning, but that would be all the Yankees had in the 7th. 

In the top of the 8th inning, Mark Lieter Jr. came in to pitch and replace Weaver. Lieter Jr. worked a scoreless inning and picked up a strikeout as well. 

The top of the Yankees order, Ben Rice, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger, went down in order in the bottom half of the 8th inning. 

Devin Williams replaced Weaver in the top of the 9th inning. Williams gave Yankees fans a bit of a scare as he allowed the first two men to reach base via a leadoff walk and then a double. Then Willams dialed it in and picked up the game's final three outs without giving up a run. He picked up two strikeouts to end this game 8-4 and give Will Warren his first career win. 

“That's a big accomplishment. I've been waiting a while for that first win.” Warren said, “It was really fun, and I'm just glad the team won.”

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow. Carlos Rodon will get the ball for the Yankees, who will face his former team, the Giants, and teammate Logan Webb. The first pitch will be at 1:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Will Warren looked great for five innings, only allowing two runs, and he picked up his first career win. He needs to build on that in his next start. Bellinger had one of the best games of his young Yankees career, which is huge because the Yankees need him to be the second-best hitter on the team. Ben Rice, Jason Dominguez, and Paul Goldschmidt all also had great games offensively. The bullpen looked solid today as well they had four innings of shutout baseball, and William locked in to pick up the final three outs and had the change-up working in the 9th inning. Weaver's velocity on his pitches being so down concerns me, but I hope that is just due to the cold weather. It was a great bounce-back game after an embarrassing one yesterday, and now they have a solid chance to win the series tomorrow. The Yankees also announced before the game today that Marcus Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list with left knee inflammation, but with Clarke Smchidt coming off the injured list next week he should be able to just slide in and take Stroman's spot in the rotation.

"The hope is that it's not something too serious and that we can attack this." Aaron Boone said postgame on Stroman's injury.