It might very well have been “Arson Judge” who showed up in the Bay Area on Wednesday, when the New York Yankees faced the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day of the 2026 MLB season at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif.
It was a brutally unproductive night for Judge, as he went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts. According to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, the Yankees superstar outfielder became just the first reigning Most Valuable Player ever to get punched out at least four times in his team’s first game of a season.
The Yankees, however, didn’t really need Judge to be in his top form to topple San Francisco, as they came away with a 7-0 victory.
Max Fried started on the mound for New York and silenced Giants batters for 6 1/3 innings, allowing zero earned runs and just 2 hits, while striking out four hitters on 86 pitches. New York scored 5 runs in the second inning, and those were enough to keep Fried comfortable on the mound, while the Giants struggled to get anything going with their bats the rest of the way.
Judge, who won the American League MVP three times in the last four seasons, can bounce back in the next game against the Giants on Friday.
With Robbie Ray starting for the Giants, the future Baseball Hall of Famer Judge should like his chances to have a big night in the second game of the series. He is 3-for-8 with 3 home runs and 6 walks in his career against the San Francisco lefty.
