The last time the masses watched a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, it ended with the Blue Jays celebrating an ALDS victory in middle of the ballpark.<\/p>\n
The party eventually moved to the visiting clubhouse, where Vladimir Guerrero Jr. channeled his inner John Sterling and declared the Bombers dead. \u201cDaaaaa Yankees lose,\u201d the Toronto star told a national TV audience as the pinstripers and their fans mourned another campaign that ended without a championship, an annual occurrence since 2009.<\/p>\n
On Friday, those same fans will return to the Bronx to watch a team that looks a lot like the one that fell short<\/a> last October. Because despite the end result, the Yankees<\/a> believed heavily in the core group that they had in 2025 and made maintaining it a priority over the winter.<\/p>\n That approach irked a segment of the fanbase this offseason, but they\u2019ll come around if the team\u2019s season-opening West Coast road trip is a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n With a 5-1 start against San Francisco and Seattle, their pitching staff on fire, ABS proving to be an advantage, and a focus on putting an end to unwelcomed patterns of the past<\/a>, it\u2019s hard to complain about the way the Yankees started their season.<\/p>\n \u201cGood way to start the year,\u201d said Ben Rice, who is hitting .412 with a 1.289 OPS in the early going. \u201cHappy to take that momentum back home.\u201d<\/p>\n Having already thwarted an unimpressive \u2014 and perhaps dysfunctional \u2014 Giants team and a talented Mariners squad, the Yankees will open their home slate against an upstart Marlins club. Miami, also 5-1, will throw Eury P\u00e9rez in Friday\u2019s opener. He\u2019ll be followed by Max Meyer and Chris Paddack.<\/p>\n As for the Yankees, Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Max Fried will look to continue the dominance of a rotation that has only permitted two runs through six games.<\/p>\n \u201cThe staff\u2019s dominant,\u201d said Cam Schlittler, who owns a 0.00 ERA after two impressive starts<\/a>. \u201cThe bullpen\u2019s been great as well, so I think the team as a whole is feeding off each other.\u201d<\/p>\n