Worldwide Sports News

The San Francisco Giants ended their winless streak to start the 2026 season, collecting their first win in the Tony Vitello era after defeating the San Diego Padres, 3-2, on March 30.

Under Vitello — joined the Giants as manager in October 2025 — San Francisco had dropped all three of its games in the season-opening series against the New York Yankees. The Giants went on the road to face the Padres, their NL West divisional rivals, where they got their first victory of the season.

Harrison Bader opened the scoring in the third inning with a 408-foot bomb over left field. The Giants added a couple of runs in the fourth inning by methodically filling the bases, something they hardly did in their series against the Yankees.

San Francisco went up 3-0 in the fourth inning. Patrick Bailey singled to left, which allowed Matt Chapman to cross home plate, as Jung Hoo Lee went to second. Another run shortly followed after Casey Schmitt hit an RBI single to left field that allowed Lee to score.

"The first one's huge," Bader told NBC Sports Bay Area. "Just a matter of going out there and, you know, continuing to process, you know, throwing strikes, taking care of the baseball, getting your swing off as a hitter. You do that, I think good thing happens in the lineup. It felt good to kind of get that off out of the way. Just a good team win."

The Yankees’ bullpen had been flawless up until the ninth inning of Monday’s ballgame. 

With the group a bit shorthanded on the night, Aaron Boone decided to keep the ball in the hands of Paul Blackburn in a tie ballgame heading into the bottom of the ninth. 

Blackburn had just put together a scoreless eighth making his first appearance of the season, but the Mariners quickly created some traffic against him leading off the final frame. 

Boone was forced to make another decision after a pair of singles put the winning run 90 feet away with just one out. 

The skipper decided to have Blackburn pitch to switch-hitting AL MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh rather than walking him to load the bases for the righty Julio Rodriguez. 

Rodriguez was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts on the night, and Raleigh had struck out in his lone at-bat off the bench, as both fight through some early season struggles. 

Still, the decision came back to cost the Yanks as the slumping backstop laced a walk-off single on the fourth pitch he saw to give the Mariners the series opener. 

Asked about it postgame, Boone said via YES Network that he never considered issuing the intentional walk. 

“Then you’re just bringing up no margin for error and a walk in play,” he said. “You got both guys that are struggling out of the gates, and Julio would be almost impossible to double-up so we’d have to bring the infield in in that situation -- we view [Blackburn] as very neutral, and even reverse, so no, there’s was no thought to that.”

In the end, the Yankees' three-game winning streak and the bullpen's 14+ inning scoreless streak were snapped.

Things finally came full circle after eight years and seven months away from home. Justin Verlander returned to the mound in regular season action as a Detroit Tiger on Monday night in Arizona. Were you nervous? I’ve rarely had the mix of excitement and nerves I felt going into this one except in September and October.

Despite making peace with the reality that Verlander is just a regular rotation arm at this point, it’s hard to see him on the mound and not just expect greatness, but there was no greatness in this one as Verlander’s command was pretty lousy all night. A wild, strange contest ultimately did not go the Tigers way. The Diamondbacks built a big lead, nearly fumbled the bag, but then held on to win their first game of the season 9-6. The Tigers fall to 2-2 on the young season.

Veteran right-hander Mike Soroka was on the mound for the Snakes. He blew Kerry Carpenter away with a 95 mph heater right down the gut to open the game, but Gleyber Torres waited him out to draw a walk. Colt Keith got into a full count, slashing a near double just foul in the left field corner, but Soroka dotted the bottom edge with a fastball and froze him. Riley Greene flared a single to right as the left-handers seemed to be looking to go opposite field. That brought up Spencer Torkelson, who bounced a ball to Nolan Arenado, and the veteran third baseman beat Torres to third base to end the top half.

Over 21 years since his major league debut with the Tigers, Justin Verlander then took the mound against a tough 1-2-3 in the D-Backs lineup. Ketel Marte had no respect for the moment, smoking a 1-1 curveball for a single back through the box. Against Corbin Carroll, Verlander worked into a 2-2 count, shook Dillon Dingler off, and bounced another slider hunting chase. The ball got away from Dingler and Marte took second, and Carroll roasted a heater to the warning track in right center field for an RBI triple. 1-0 Diamondbacks.

Verlander tried to junkball Perdomo, and it didn’t work as the shortstop took a breaking ball down in a full count to walk. Gabriel Moreno bounced out to Javy Báez at shortstop, but it was weakly hit and they couldn’t turn it over. So, Carroll scored, and it was now 2-0 D-Backs with one out as Arenado stepped into the box.

Arenado lined a 1-2 fastball right to Báez for the second out, but the shortstop uncorked a wild snap throw to first as Perdomo was leaning, and that was a two base throwing error. Fortunately it didn’t matter as Alek Thomas flew out to right to end the inning.

Not an ideal start for the Tigers in this one.

McGonigle led off the second by smoking a line drive to right at 103.4 mph, but the speedy Carroll ran it down. Dingler chased a bunch of breaking balls to strike out swinging. Parker Meadows got a changeup down and away, lining it down the left field line for a double, and that brought Báez to the dish. The shortstop worked a full count, but presumably expecting them to fish away with a breaking ball, was instead locked up by a sinker middle-in. The only bright spot was that Soroka was already 40 pitches deep.

When I think of a long-time JV killer, one of the first names that comes to mind is long-time Cleveland slugger Carlos Santana. We prefer the guitarist, but it was Santana digging in against Verlander to open the bottom of the second. An 0-2 slider was hung, but Santana lined it to Carpenter in right field. Another hanging slider was roped to right for a single by Ildemaro Vargas. A first pitch curveball to Jordan Lawler was ripped to left for a single. Quite a bit of hard contact already, and now we were back to Marte at the top of the order.

Marte lifted a dangerous pop-up into shallow left-center and Báez called off Greene and made a pretty sweet basket catch while running well out into the outfield for the second out. In a 1-1 count, yet another hanging slider was right into Carroll’s bat path and got launched for a three-run shot. 5-0 Diamondbacks.

This was not what we were looking for. The stuff looks just fine, but the slider was all over the place in the early going. The hard contact continued as Perdomo got a first pitch heater down the pipe and fortunately lined it to Meadows to end the inning.

So far the command was pretty poor from JV.

Carpenter opened the third with a line drive single to right field. Torres drove one out to the warning track in dead center but it died in Thomas’ glove for the first out. Keith did better, hammering one further to center field. It kicked off the wall just shy of the yellow line high up the wall for a double. Carpenter thought it was out and perhaps wasn’t on his horse, stopping at third, and Keith had to scramble back to second base. Tough medicine on a ball that probably carried 415 feet or more.

Greene worked a 3-2 count and then took a front hip fastball that caught the inside edge to strike out. Tork watched a pair of breaking balls away to get to 2-0, then took a sinker on the inner edge for a strike. The next sinker was right down the pipe but he fouled it off and then chased a slurve just off the plate away to strike out. TTBDNS time. Make that five baserunners stranded in three innings.

Verlander’s command was just really spotty throughout his season debut. He wasn’t getting ahead enough, and made some mistakes in hitters’ counts. Curiously, we saw no high fourseamers at all really through the first three innings, but he did settle down for a scoreless frame.

He tugged three straight fastballs to Moreno before working back to a full count. Moreno drilled a 95 mph heater at the bottom of the zone down the right field line for a double. Verlander got ahead of Arenado 0-2, then missed down with a changeup. A fastball down was lifted out to Greene near the warning track in left for the first out. Thomas was locked up by a curveball and flailed at it for Verlander’s first strikeout. He and Santana locked up in a lengthy battle as his pitch count reached 65 on the night, and eventually popped him up to McGonigle for the final out.

The bats still weren’t doing anything in the fourth. McGonigle grounded out, Dingler punched out on a slurve down and away, and Meadows flew out to center field after starting ahead 3-0.

Verlander came back out and quickly collected two outs on very routine contact. Marte stepped in with two outs, and Verlander was closing in on 80 pitches. After getting ahead, he couldn’t get the talented outfielder to chase, and Marte worked a walk. That was all for Verlander’s return start to the Tigers.

Enmanuel de Jesus took over against the tough series of lefties atop the order. Dillon Dingler had a successful challenge as de Jesus dotted the outer corner with fastballs, but in a 2-2 count de Jesus yanked a fastball and it got away from Dingler as Marte took second, but it didn’t matter as Carroll chased a cutter away and struck out. Onto the fifth.

Soroka’s day was about to end as well, but he had enough left in the tank to punch out Báez, Carpenter, and Torres on 9 pitches. The immaculate inning did not speak well for the Tigers chances of fighting back in this one.

De Jesus got Perdomo to start the bottom of the fifth, bur Moreno singled to left. Arenado came up with a nice piece of 1-2 hitting, punching a fastball through the open right side of the infield. Thomas tried to bunt first pitch but tapped it foul, and then the left-handed outfielder smoked a cutter the opposite way off the wall to make it 6-0. De Jesus was following Verlander’s example and missing way too often, and he walked Santana to load the bases. He bounced back to pop up Vargas, but after getting ahead of Lawlar, de Jesus tried high sinkers twice and then missed low with a changeup to walk in a run. 7-0 Diamondbacks. Le sigh.

Marte got tied up by de Jesus’ first two pitches and eventually grounded one to Báez at shortstop. It was a bouncer and Marte runs well, so Báez fired quickly to second to get Lawlar. He was called out, but the Diamondbacks rightly challenged, and Lawlar was safe. 8-0 Diamondbacks. The late night suffering will continue until morale improves.

That was all for de Jesus’ return to the major leagues. After painting edges all spring, his command wasn’t sharp here either, and Hinch had to go get him as well. Brant Hurter came on to retire Carroll on a bliner out to Greene to end the inning.

Right-hander Kevin Ginkel took over in the top of the seventh. He froze Keith and got a soft tapper from Greene to start the inning. An end of the bat liner to center field from Torkelson was caught on a nice sliding catch by Thomas in the seventh. The Tigers now had 11 strikeouts to one walk, and the zone was not under control.

Hurter tossed a 1-2-3 bottom half of the sixth. Moreno flew out to the warning track in left but Greene was camped under it. Arenado grounded out to McGonigle to send us to the eighth.

So far, this had been classic bad at-bat theater by the Tigers. They were largely trying to be patient, only to let pitchers back into counts taking fastballs for strikes when ahead, and then chasing once there were two strikes. Not what we are looking for.

Right-hander Joe Ross, brother of Tyson, handled the seventh for the Snakes. He walked McGonigle to start things off. Dingler ambushed a first pitch slider and hammered a one hopper off the center field wall for a double to get the Tigers on the board. 8-1 Snakes.

Parker Meadows grounded out to second, moving Dingler to third, and Báez strafed a line drive single to right field to plate the Tigers’ second run. Small victories against arguably the D-Backs worst reliever. Carpenter chased a splitter away and struck out yet again, but Torres drilled a single to center field to keep the inning alive. Colt Keith stepped into the box, and Diamondbacks called a mound meeting to discuss.

It didn’t help them. Ross fell behind 2-1, and Keith smoked an opposite field drive into the left field corner to plate both runs. 8-4 Diamondbacks, and now things were getting interesting. They got more interesting when Riley Greene dumped a single to center field. Keith raced around to make it 8-5, and that was it for Joe Ross.

Sidearmer Ryan Thompson came on and threw three straight balls, balked Greene to third, and then gave up an RBI double to Torkelson. Hmm….8-6 Tigers. McGonigle back up as the 10th batter of the inning. Thompson fell behind 2-0, and the D-Backs were in danger. Probably the right thing to do was just to walk McGonigle, and Thompson agreed, doing so on four straight pitches. And now it was Dillon Dingler’s turn. Thompson missed four more times in a row, yes that’s eight straight, and Dingler walked as well. Yeesh.

That was it for Thompson, and at this point Jason Benetti, who had pointed out all game long that the Diamondbacks bullpen was terrible last year and not particularly upgraded this offseason, was grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary. Still, the Tigers were still well short of a comeback.

Torey Lovullo came to the mound once again, looking fully fed up with the situation, and called on Juan Morillo instead. A disgusted home crowd let out a roar when Morillo floated in a first pitch strike, but he too fell behind 2-1, then 3-1. However, Meadows got a 99 mph fourseamer down in the zone, and grounded out to second to at least temporarily restore sanity to the game. 8-6 Diamondbacks.

Hurter nearly hit Alek Thomas with a sinker to start the bottom half, but instead the center fielder swung and grounded out to Báez. Carlos Santana also grounded out quickly to Torres. Unfortunately, a 1-0 sinker to Vargas was up a bit and he smashed it out to left center field for a solo shot to make it a 9-6 game. Lawlar ripped a hot grounder past McGonigle into left, and that was it for Hurter as Kyle Finnegan entered the contest.

Finnegan dotted 97 on the inner edge to start Marte off, and Dingler had to challenge, making that two successful challenges for the Tigers catcher. Finnegan heard Lawlar break for second, turned and fired high to Torkelson. The ball got away and Lawlar ended up on third, but Marte lifted a shallow fly ball to left to end the inning.

Lovullo turned to Taylor Clarke to open the eighth. Báez flew out to left off the end of the bat to start things off. Carpenter struck out again, and then Torres flew out to center field.

Tyler Holton took over in the bottom of the eighth with tough lefties to face, and Holton quickly walked Corbin Carroll on four straight pitches. The speedy Carroll is not the guy to put on base to leadoff an inning. Holton did erase him by getting Perdomo to ground to Báez, who forced Carroll at second. Tyler Holton threw a 94 mph fastball in that at-bat which is odd, but he also was missing a ton, which was even odder. Holton walked Moreno on four straight pitches as well, and Nolan Arenado stepped in with a chance to put this game to bed for good. Instead, he popped out to Torkelson in foul territory. Holton punched out Thomas, and it was last call for the Tigers’ offense.

Keith opened the inning with another well struck ball off of Paul Sewald, but flew out to Lawlar in left. Greene flew out just shy of the warning track in center, and it was up to Torkelson who struck out.

Overall, poor showings from Verlander and de Jesus. Dingler, Greene, and particularly Keith had good nights at the plate, but not enough to overcome a big deficit. The Tigers are 2-2, and now Casey Mize will make his season debut on Tuesday night against RHP Brandon Pfaadt at 9:40 p.m. ET.

SEATTLE — Aaron Boone wanted the Yankees to be aggressive in using the automated ball-strike system.

A 5-for-5 night of challenges Monday — including two in one at-bat and the other three by three consecutive batters in one inning — was right in line with those wishes, though it did not ultimately make a difference in a 2-1 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

On a night when they struggled offensively, the Yankees at least created some better opportunities for themselves by getting called strikes turned into balls, which turned into some barking with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook along the way.

“Really good job by the guys,” Boone said. “When you have that kind of success rate, it’s not going to be like that every night, but I thought every one was obviously warranted and a couple in some key spots to give us a chance to build an inning. We just weren’t able to build much offensively tonight.”

Estabrook heard it from Boone and the Yankees dugout in the fourth inning, when Ben Rice, Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. each successfully challenged pitches below the zone in consecutive at-bats.

“You also get a little frustrated over there, like, those are razor-thin pitches sometimes, you don’t want to always have to be challenging,” Boone said. “But good on the guys for hammering the strike zone right now.”

An inning earlier, José Caballero successfully challenged two pitches in the same at-bat. He turned a 1-1 count into a 2-0 count and then a strikeout into a walk.

The Yankees are 10-for-11 in ABS challenges through four games.

The Yankees are now 5/5 on challenges against Mike Estabrook.

Estabrook got mad because Aaron Boone started chirping him to lock in

Ridiculous Estabrook is pissed off, get the calls right… pic.twitter.com/5ARiCznrfX

— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) March 31, 2026

For the first time since their down-to-the-wire race for the American League MVP last season, Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh squared off Monday night.

Raleigh was not in the Mariners starting lineup, entering the day 2-for-15 with 10 strikeouts, but pinch hit in the seventh inning and later delivered the game-winning hit with a walk-off single. The catcher was off to a slow start after crushing 60 home runs last season and nearly swiping the MVP from Judge, who received 17 first-place votes to Raleigh’s 13.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

“I figured it would be pretty close,” Boone said before Monday’s game. “I kind of believed Judgey would carry the day. I think [the voters] got it right. But there’s no denying the all-around season that Cal had. It was deservingly a very tight race.”

Carlos Rodón (elbow surgery) threw 50 pitches in live batting practice Sunday in Tampa, continuing his buildup toward rejoining the Yankees in April. It is possible his next outing could come on the start of a rehab assignment this weekend.

Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, is expected to throw one inning of live batting practice in a few days as he goes through a scheduled deload before building up a final time.

As for Anthony Volpe, the shortstop remains on track to begin facing live pitching Wednesday in Tampa. He has been hitting off the Trajekt pitching machine over the past few days.

Carlos Lagrange made his Triple-A debut Sunday, tossing four innings of one-run ball with no walks and three strikeouts. The 22-year-old threw 68 pitches in frigid Buffalo, but still brought the heat with his fastball, averaging 97.9 mph and topping out at 101.3.

The rest of the Yankees minor league rosters were announced Monday ahead of those affiliates beginning the season Friday. Among the notable assignments: SS George Lombard Jr., RHP Ben Hess and LHP Kyle Carr at Double-A Somerset; LHP Pico Kohn, INF Kaeden Kent and INF Core Jackson at High-A Hudson Valley; and LHP Henry Lalane, LHP Allen Facundo and OF Brando Mayea at Single-A Tampa.

At the start of Monday night, the biggest concern around the Dodgers was focused squarely on Roki Sasaki.

By the end of it, the questions had shifted to their suddenly sluggish offense.

In a 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium, Sasaki pitched surprisingly well, allowing just one run and walking only two batters in four-plus innings of solid work –– a stark reversal from the 15.58 ERA he posted in a poor spring training marred by a total lack of consistent command.

Instead, it was the Dodgers’ lineup that had the biggest problems, stumbling to a third-straight disappointing performance following its eight-run outburst on Opening Day.

Early on, they had no answers for young Guardians left-hander Parker Messick, who went six scoreless innings in what was only his eighth career start. With a funky left-handed delivery and unpredictable six-pitch arsenal, he not only struck out five batters, but also allowed just two hard-hit balls. And even one of those resulted in an inning-ending double-play.

By the time Messick was done, the Guardians (3-2) had built a four-run lead, and turned things over to their traditionally stout bullpen. The Dodgers didn’t score until the ninth, by which point their two-run rally was too little, too late.

“I thought they pitched us well tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “(There were) a couple at-’em balls that turned into double plays I felt could have changed the inning or the game.”

Alas, over their last three games, the Dodgers (3-1) have now totaled only 10 runs and 19 hits. They’ve struck out 17 times in that span, and drawn only six walks (including none on Monday).

It’s a small sample, of course –– especially for a club that was presented a team-wide Silver Slugger Award pregame for leading the National League in scoring in 2025.

But it has raised a few opening-week worries, nonetheless –– raising some uncomfortable similarities to the second-half and postseason slumps the team battled down the stretch last year.

What it means

The Dodgers might have the most talented roster in the majors. But that doesn’t mean they can get away with unsound fundamentals.

Monday was a reminder of that, with the team making a series of uncharacteristic mistakes.

They had two on and no outs in the third inning with Shohei Ohtani at the plate, yet came up empty after Miguel Rojas was picked off at second, Ohtani lined out chasing what would’ve been ball four and Kyle Tucker went down swinging to retire the side.

They struggled to control the running game with backup catcher Dalton Rushing behind the plate, allowing the Guardians to successfully steal a base on all three of their attempts.

And in a three-run seventh inning that allowed the Guardians to put the game away, reliever Justin Wrobleski committed several costly miscues: Failing to cleanly field a bunt to load the bases, losing Rhys Hoskins in an 0-2 count to walk in a run with two outs in the inning, then giving up a two-run double to Daniel Schneemann that put the score out of reach.

Who’s hot

Against all the odds, at least following his disastrous spring performance, how about Sasaki?

His fastball command was significantly improved, helping him throw strikes on 45 of 78 pitches even with a few wild misses mixed in. His newly added cutter gave him another weapon, accounting for two of his four strikeouts. And while he didn’t execute his trademark splitter as crisply as usual, it remained a largely unhittable pitch, generating a whiff on three of five swings.

Granted, the Guardians –– the American League’s lowest-scoring offense last year –– let him off the hook a few times, both by chasing outside the zone repeatedly and failing to punish a few mistake pitches in it.

However, the Dodgers will happily take what Sasaki gave them Monday; an outing good enough to keep them in the game early, and save the bullpen from being overworked too severely in the season’s opening week.

Who’s not

Right now, just about the entire top half of the Dodgers’ lineup (outside of Will Smith, who didn’t start Monday).

Ohtani snapped a hitless streak that extended back to his first at-bat of the season by leading the game off with a bloop single to left. After that, however, he didn’t reach base again, dropping his early batting average to .167.

Tucker and Mookie Betts also went 1-for-4, leaving them hitting just .200 through the first four games of the season.

Teoscar Hernández snapped a 10 at-bat hitless streak with a single in the seventh inning –– staying alive after originally having a called third strike overturned on an ABS challenge, one of his two successful appeals in the game –– but was also quiet otherwise, finishing the night with a .143 average.

And Freddie Freeman had a 0-for-4 performance that sunk his average to .188. 

To this point, those five now have the worst opening-week hitting numbers of all the Dodgers’ regular starters.

Roberts acknowledged some surprise about the slow starts his superstar core has gotten off to, especially after the strong springs all of them produced. But, he spun it as a positive in the big picture.

“For me, the takeaway is we’re 3-1 and the guys that we expect to swing the bats aren’t swinging the bats right now,” he said. “So that’s a good thing. They’ll hit.”

It just hasn’t happened yet.

Up next

Ohtani will make his season pitching debut on Tuesday, when the Dodgers and Guardians continue their three-game series. Despite a delayed spring pitching progression while hitting for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic, Ohtani should be built up to go six innings. The Guardians will counter with right-hander Tanner Bibee, who was 12-11 with a 4.24 ERA last year and gave up three runs in five innings in his first start of this season last week.  

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

And he didn’t even need Jose Ramirez to hit to do it!

Parker Messick beat the Dodgers 4-2 and pitched six shutout innings, with no walks, five strikeouts and allowing only five hits. This dude is a GAMER, folks:

Jose Ramirez was chasing badly all game. He got a first inning single and a stolen base… then couldn’t come through. However he did make a great play, turning a double-play on a nice pick.

The offense came on an Austin Hedges (!) double and a Steven Kwan double in the 3rd. Angel Martinez sac bunted in between those two, but it was against a RHP so I’ll reluctantly allow it.

Then, in the seventh, the Guardians finally broke through… after singles from Austin Hedges (again!), Angel Martinez and Steven Kwan. Then, Chase DeLauter and Jose Ramirez again failed to get the job done, but Rhys Hoskins (having subbed in for Kyle Manzardo) managed to take a walk off of Justin Wrobleski to force in a run.

Finally, up stepped the Guardians’ centerfielder for the night: Daniel Schneemann, the Mormon Missile. And, he rightly took four pitches, then rocketed the fifth pitch he saw into the gap in left-center for a two-run double:

Shawn Armstrong entered for the 7th, but was picked up by Erik Sabrowski who went one and a third dominant innings.

Cade Smith does not appear to be himself yet… he gave up two runs while not having control of his secondary stuff, but eventually managed to nail down the save.

This was a HUGE win. With Ohtani and Yamomoto on deck, the Guardians needed to get this one, and they did. Now, it’s time to surprise some folks and win this series.

The Guardians ruined the Dodgers’ chance for an undefeated season, be proud. And be excited because Jose and Cade Smith will be back to their usual before you know it.

Monday was another strong showing for the Mets’ pitching staff. 

Clay Holmes had to battle through traffic and long counts in the early going, but he was able to limit the damage to just one run against before settling in during his first start of the season. 

The righty retired the final seven batters he faced, but allowed a solo shot to Nolan Gorman with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to bring his night to a close. 

He allowed just the two runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts over 5.2 IP. 

“First three innings a lot of pitches, but then he attacked,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Fourth, fifth, and then the sixth inning he was pretty efficient -- overall I thought he mixed his pitch well and got a lot better as the game progressed.”

Tobias Myers then came on and provided the Mets with exactly what they were looking for, striking out two of the four batters he faced in 1.2 perfect innings.

Myers is shaping up to be a legit weapon for New York’s bullpen this season. 

“He’s huge,” Mendoza said. “He’s a guy with that versatility and has the ability to get both lefties and righties out, he can give you multiple innings or just one inning if we need -- he’s a pretty important role for us, and did it again today.”

Brooks Raley followed that by working around a single in the the eighth, before turning things over to Devin Williams, who had his signature Airbender working as he retired the side in order to close out his first save as a Met.

Williams struck out one and threw all but two of his 12 pitches for strikes. 

“He didn’t mess around,” Mendoza said. “He was really good.”

This continues what’s been a strong start to the season for the Mets’ bullpen, a group that's allowed just seven runs across 18 innings of work over the first four games. 

“They’ve done a really good job,” the skipper said. “They’ve had to cover a lot of innings with two extra inning games out of the gate, and they’ve kept us in games so far -- we’ve asked a lot out of some of them out of necessity, but we'll just continue to keep in the mind the big picture and continue to protect guys when we need to.”

SEATTLE — The Yankees now know what the Giants must have felt like throughout the first series of the season.

After their pitching staff shut down the Giants for three straight games to start the year — and largely did the same with the Mariners on Monday — the Yankees got a taste of their own medicine.

On a chilly night at T-Mobile Park, their bats were held in check and their bullpen finally cracked in the bottom of the ninth, when Cal Raleigh delivered a walk-off single against Paul Blackburn to lift the Mariners to a 2-1 win and hand the Yankees their first loss.

After Ryan Weathers gave up one run across 4 ¹/₃ innings in his Yankees debut, the bullpen turned in 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings — making it 14 ²/₃ to start the season — before the Mariners got to Blackburn in his second inning of work. Aaron Boone had already used Fernando Cruz, Jake Bird, Brent Headrick and Camilo Doval, and had David Bednar for an inning if the Yankees had gotten the lead, so Blackburn went back out for the ninth in the 1-1 game.

Leo Rivas led off with a single past the dive of Ben Rice and one out later, Brendan Donovan singled on a bouncing ball up the middle to put runners on the corners.

Raleigh, who began the night on the bench after starting the year 2-for-15 with 10 strikeouts, then came through in the clutch, hooking a single down the right-field line to end it.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

“If we’re going to win that game, it just felt like our best way to go was with Black[burn],” Boone said. “I thought he managed contact for the most part there, even in that final inning. … They found a couple holes and beat us.”

The Yankees had another aggressive night with the automated ball-strike system, going 5-for-5 on challenges, matching the amount of hits they tallied against a dominant Luis Castillo and the Mariners bullpen.

The only two hits Castillo gave up across six innings came on a bloop and a dribbler, with the Yankees racking up 17 swings-and-misses against him.

“We were having a hard time with his fastball, it was playing up tonight,” Boone said. “That low slot, he’s able to generate some swings and misses at the top. With his fastball, he was getting us to swing through some pitches.”

Weathers, who struck out seven, was solid in his Yankees debut, retiring seven straight into the fifth inning, when the first two batters reached on singles and then moved to second and third on a groundout.

Fernando Cruz then replaced Weathers and bailed him out, getting pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone and Julio Rodriguez to whiff badly at splitters, keeping it a 1-0 game.

“I definitely want to be more efficient, want to be in the zone a little bit more,” said Weathers, who said he was battling some nerves in the first inning before settling in. “I don’t want to hang my hat on 4 ¹/₃ innings. I want to get deeper in the ballgame, and a lot of that comes from managing pitch count myself and not falling behind in counts.”

The Yankees took advantage of Castillo leaving the game and quickly tied it up in the top of the seventh. Ben Rice led off the frame by roping a single against lefty José A. Ferrer before Giancarlo Stanton reached on an error.

One out later, with runners on the corners, Amed Rosario pinch-hit for Ryan McMahon — to which the Mariners responded by bringing in righty Eduard Bazardo. But Rosario got the job done anyway, lifting a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game 1-1.

The Mariners threatened to take the lead in the bottom of the seventh, putting runners on the corners with one out, but Headrick struck out Raleigh before Doval got Rodriguez to ground out — though that was it for Doval after two pitches because Boone did not want to use him for a second up this early in the season.

“I thought our whole team threw the ball well all night,” Weathers said. “Seattle threw the ball well. It was definitely a pitchers’ duel.”