Following the Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Giants on Friday afternoon, manager Aaron Boone and the players spoke about on a number of topics, including Camilo Doval‘s dominant start to the 2026 season.
Camilo Doval dominating to start season
Doval was one of GM Brian Cashman‘s big acquisitions at last year’s trade deadline. He, along with David Bednar, were supposed to shore up the Yankees bullpen for a deep playoff run. Doval, however, struggled in the final months of the 2025 season as a Yankee. Now, a whole offseason with the Yankees behind him, Doval has come out to start the season dominating batters.
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After pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the opener, Doval struck out the side on Friday afternoon.
“Dominant,” Boone said of Doval’s outing. “The sinker from the side, looked like a split and I thought really good pace and tempo to him. filling up the strikezone. That was a dominant 1-2-3 inning of what he can be and what he looks like when he’s rolling. Really excited for that performance, now back-to-back strong outings for him.”
After coming over from San Francisco at the deadline, Doval pitched to a 4.82 ERA in 22 appearances in pinstripes. After Friday’s win, Doval was asked about how he feels with the team this season.
“It’s like joining a new family. You start adapting to get a good rhythm of how things work out here,” Doval said via the team interpreter. “That’s really it. Feeling more comfortable, trying to do my job, really. Focus on the work and it’s going well.”
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“That’s what he’s capable of,” Boone said. “He’s built in really tough on a righty, but he’s capable of getting lefties, too. The sinker was great today, but also landed a couple of sliders in there, cutter in the zone, kinda overmatched them. That’s what he’s capable of when he’s right.”
The Yankees hope they are getting the Doval from 2023, when he made his lone All-Star Game as a member of the Giants. That season, he pitched to a 2.93 ERA and picked up a career high 39 saves.
“We always talk about 2023 and that’s a goal of ours. To be a version of myself from 2023 or better,” Doval said. “The mindset is simple. Do your job, put in the work and try to improve as much as you can.”
Giancarlo Stanton dialed in
Almost quietly, Stanton is having a good first two games of the season. He picked up two hits in the opener and added another two knocks in Friday’s win. One of those hits was a homer that put the Yankees up 3-0. He also narrowly missed another when he
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It’s just a continuation of a pretty good spring for the slugger. In 11 spring games, Stanton smashed four homers and hit .286.
“Really good ABs. He’s disciplined, develops his plan and goes up there and is executing really well,” Boone said of Stanton. “First at-bat where he strikes out, you think, ‘yea he’s got the right plan, the right thought.’ Then he hit a pretty good ball to right and then got a wrinkle in the zone that he stuck. Yea, he’s in a really good place.”
Judge and the ABS
One moment flipped the game on its head, which happened via the new ABS challenge system.
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With the score tied 0-0 in the sixth inning and Aaron Judge at the plate, Robbie Ray threw a 1-0 slider that looked to be low. It was called strike by the homeplate umpire, as many of those calls have been to Judge in the past.
However, the Yankee Captain tapped his helmet to challenge the call, the first time he’s done it in a real game. Judge’s knowledge of the zone was correct, which changed the count from 1-1 to a favorable 2-0. And although Ray fought back to work the count full, Judge would launch an inside fastball over the left field wall to give the Yankees a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“I thought it was borderline,” Boone said of the pitch Judge challenged. “I knew it was going to probably be close. Obviously, it turned into a real leverage-heavy at-bat for him and he hit a moonshot.”
Judge called the process “weird” but said he’ll get used to the ABS system, but felt that with Paul Goldschmidt on second, he wanted to make sure he had a better chance to drive him in.
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“I’m a hitter, I gotta focus on hitting,” Judge said of the challenge. “I’m not going to sit here and challenge every single one that I think is close. But it was a big spot that I think I had a chance to flip the count. I still gotta do my job as a hitter. It takes one pitch. Gotta get one pitch, put a good swing on it and good things can happen.”
After going hitless with four strikeouts in the opener, that challenge helped Judge get the pitch he needed to get his first hit and homer of the season. The reigning AL MVP is now 1-for-9 with six strikeouts to start the season.
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