On a nasty night in New York, the Giants made quick work of Yankees

NEW YORK — In the first two weeks of the Giants’ season, the lineup remained basically the same, depending on whether the opposing starting pitcher was a lefty or righty. There were zero roster moves. The team remained exactly what it was coming out of spring training.

For Giants fans following the team in recent years, with all the constant roster and lineup movement, this takes some adjustment.

It’s not a fluke. It’s not a surprise. It was the game plan. If Buster Posey has taught us anything as president of baseball operations, it’s that he has faith and loyalty in his management team, his coaching staff, and his 26-man roster — at least so far.

Of course, it helps to win at a .769 clip (10-3) and stay clear of sickbay.

The Giants opened a weekend series in New York Friday night in the cold (44 degrees at game time) and rain (25-minute delay to the first pitch) of Yankee Stadium and presented the first lineup shuffle of the season — manager Bob Melvin preferred to call it a tweak — as slumping LaMonte Wade moved from first to sixth and sizzling Mike Yastrzemksi batted leadoff.

The early results were encouraging in a 9-1 Giants victory that lasted just shy of 5 ½ innings because it was deemed too dangerous to continue.

Yastrzemski hit Marcus Stroman’s first pitch of the game into right-center for a double, the genesis of a five-run, first-inning rally that Wade capped with a two-run double down the line in right. In between, Jung Hoo Lee crushed a three-run homer, his first of the year. It was the first time since May 25, 2022, that the Giants scored five first-inning runs, and the two lefty batters who flip-flopped in the lineup got two of the biggest hits.

“We try to stay consistent,” Melvin said. “We’ve obviously won some games and have some good flow to our lineup. LaMonte is struggling just a little bit for him, and Yaz is swinging well. Someone as hot as him, you want to try to get him up there.”

Wade entered the game with an anemic .105 batting average (4-for-38) and .146 on-base percentage. In the past, no matter what his average might have been, his OBP was usually high because of his keen awareness of the strike zone and high walk rate. However, he walked just twice in his first 42 plate appearances, a 4.8% walk rate, down from last year’s 15.5%. Also, his strikeout rate was higher than normal.

But again, faith and loyalty. Wade wasn’t benched. Melvin didn’t replace him with Casey Schmitt at first base, which is usually the case when a lefty starts for the opposition. Melvin and Posey stuck with Wade because of Wade’s track record and propensity to get on base, believing that better days are ahead.

“It’s probably only going to take a couple of at-bats,” Melvin noted before the game, and perhaps it might have taken fewer than that.

Against a very shaky Stroman, who failed to get out of the first inning, Wade worked the count to 3-2 before stroking his double. Conversely, Yastrzemski, who ended Wednesday’s homestand finale with a walk-off homer into McCovey Cove, swung at the very next pitch he saw to begin the theatrics.

Naturally, the continuity won’t last. Through the grind of any 162-game season, players will hit their way out of the lineup, pitch their way off the staff, or sustain an injury that will take them off the roster. But as much as possible, Posey and Co. want to go with the same guys.

With such a mindset, there’s little chance Farhan Zaidi’s franchise roster record will be broken. In 2022, a year after the magical 107-win season, Posey’s predecessor employed a whopping 66 players, the most the Giants ever used in a season. No. 2 on the franchise list is the 2019 team with 64 players. No. 3 is last year’s team, 58.

It’s the way Zaidi operated. Steady roster and lineup changes, working the margins, and experimenting with new guys sometimes daily. It worked splendidly in 2021. Not so much in his other five years.

“It’s been good,” Melvin said. “When you’re having success, you want to stay with it. I think that’s been the focus from the very beginning. Let’s get the right guys here. There were guys who made the team out of spring based on their performance.”

With the Giants ahead 5-0, pitcher Robbie Ray’s mission amid a steady drizzle was to throw strikes and get quick outs if only because it wouldn’t have been an official game had rain ended the festivities before five innings were completed. As it turned out, Ray got outs but not quickly. He needed 81 pitches to complete three innings, but at least he cruised through the fourth on just 17 and was pulled after 98, yielding a single run.

The Giants scored three runs in the top of the fifth, making it 8-1, and reliever Spencer Bivens worked the home half to make the game official. It kept raining, and they kept playing. Things got dangerous in the sixth when Yankees reliever Yoendrys Gomez had issues gripping the wet ball and was extremely wild — of his first 13 pitches, one was a strike, and one nearly pulverized Lee.

That prompted the umpires to huddle to discuss possibly ending the game. No dice. Gomez faced three more batters, and once he issued a bases-loaded walk to Wade, the game was suspended. According to Rule 4.03 (e), the crew chief can’t call the game until 30 minutes after it was suspended. So at 10:34 p.m. local time, the game was in the books.

Regardless of the weather, it was impressive to keep the homer-happy Yankees homerless. After all, they’re the team that made torpedo bats mainstream. In their first 12 games, the Yankees hit 26 homers, all but four at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees had just two hits, and Aaron Judge went 0-for-1 with two walks. Because of the abbreviated game, Ray was awarded the win even though he didn’t pitch the required five innings to qualify.

The Giants have played four series and won three and are one weekend win from claiming another. Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb will start Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and oppose Will Warren and former Giant Carlos Rodon.