New York Yankees starter Jhony Brito pitched his first win of the season throwing five innings of shutout ball before being lifted against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium in New York on Sun Apr 2, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—The San Francisco Giants (1-2) suffered another shutout loss to the New York Yankees (2-1), 6-0, on Sunday afternoon and fell in the Opening Week series 2-1.

It is the first time in franchise history that they have been shutout twice in the first three games of a season. They struck out 41 times – which Giants manager Gabe Kapler did not seem too concerned about.

“I think you go through a three-game stretch or a five- or a 10-game stretch and you’re going to have times when you strikeout more,” said Kapler. “We always want to be putting the ball in play with authority, the number one goal, we weren’t able to do that as much as we needed to in this series.”

Yankees captain Aaron Judge hit his second home run of the season in the third inning to put New York up 1-0. Then Giancarlo Stanton hit a homer on a – fly ball to center field and Anthony Rizzo scored, bringing the Yankees up 3-0.

In the fourth inning, Kyle Higashioka hit a home run to left field to put the Yankees up 4-0. In the seventh, Rizzo hit a sacrifice fly to center fielder Mike Yastrzemski and allowed Anthony Volpe to score. Then a wild pitch by Giants right-hander Sean Hjelle allowed Gleyber Torres to score and boosted the Yankees to 6-0.

Starting pitcher Ross Stripling made his Giants debut and allowed four runs in five innings. Hjelle allowed two runs in two innings.

Giants catcher Joey Bart had to be placed on the 10-day injured list after an MRI revealed a mild back strain. Bart said he “felt something weird” during batting practice.

“We don’t expect it to be a long-term thing,” said Kapler. “We discussed the possibility of like, seven days. Maybe a few more.”

San Francisco is 1-2 after losing their first series of the 2023 season.

“First series in the season, so I mean they did their part, they know their strengths and they pitched well,” said Giants third baseman J.D. Davis. “They executed a lot of pitches against us. I think one thing is we just scrap it up and learn from it and take it into Chicago and try to learn from something.”

The Giants continue their road trip with a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox. Giants right-hander DeSclafani will go up against right-hander Michael Kopech in the White Sox’s home opener. First pitch on Monday has been moved up to 12:10 p.m. PT. due to a forecast of inclement weather.