Cody Bellinger had run into bad luck of late.
The Yankees center fielder missed two games at the beginning of the month when his lower back tightened up — an issue he’s dealt with from time to time.
He sat out again on Tuesday when a batch of room-service chicken wings in Detroit left him with food poisoning.
Bellinger entered Saturday with three hits in his last 31 at-bats, dropping his season average to .189.
“A little bit disjointed here to start, with the back and the food poisoning, [but] Cody’s gonna bang,” manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. “He’ll get it rolling.”
That proved to be prophetic.
Bellinger delivered a pair of run-scoring hits in Saturday’s 8-4 victory in the Bronx, helping to back Yankees rookie starter Will Warren as he picked up his first MLB win.
On a chilly, rainy afternoon, Bellinger started the scoring in the first inning when he struck an RBI triple against flame-throwing Giants starter Jordan Hicks. Bellinger then scored on a Paul Goldschmidt sacrifice fly, putting the Yankees up, 2-0.
With the score tied, 2-2, in the bottom of the fifth, Bellinger lined a go-ahead RBI single against Hicks to kick off a five-run inning for the Yankees.
Bellinger finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs for his second multi-hit and second multi-RBI game with the Yankees (8-6), who acquired him in an offseason trade with the Chicago Cubs. He had three hits and four RBI on March 29, when he was part of the Yankees’ historic nine-homer barrage against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Bellinger’s bat came in support of Warren, who held the Giants (10-4) to two runs on two hits in five innings.
Behind a crisp, mid-90s fastball and a well-placed sweeper he used to freeze hitters, Warren recorded six strikeouts and elicited 14 swings and misses. His lone blemish came in the second inning, when Wilmer Flores clubbed a two-run home run.
In the top of the fifth, after Warren walked No. 9 hitter Tyler Fitzgerald with two outs, Boone stuck with the rookie right-hander. Warren rewarded his manager’s trust by striking out Mike Yastrzemski for the third time in as many at-bats.
Saturday marked the eighth career start for Warren, the Yankees’ No. 2 pitching prospect, who made the season-opening rotation amid a rash of injuries. Warren, 25, went 0-3 with a 10.32 ERA last season but is now 1-0 with a 5.14 ERA through three starts this year.
He became eligible for Saturday’s win thanks to the Yankees’ fifth-inning rally, which, after Bellinger’s tie-breaking single, also included an RBI double from Goldschmidt; a sacrifice fly by Anthony Volpe; and a two-run single from Jasson Domínguez.
That hit snapped an 0-for-15 slide for Domínguez, who added a seventh-inning infield single and finished 2-for-4.
Ben Rice added a solo home run — his fourth homer of the season — in the bottom of the sixth.
Aaron Judge went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs. He is 14-for-28 (.500) in eight career games against the Giants, whom he grew up rooting for as a kid in Linden, Calif.
New Yankees closer Devin Williams, who entered Saturday with a 12.00 ERA through four appearances, worked around a leadoff walk and an ensuing double to pitch a scoreless ninth in a non-save situation.
Saturday’s win evened the three-game series for the Yankees, who suffered a rain-shortened 9-1 loss on Friday night. They will go for the series win on Sunday afternoon, when Carlos Rodón (1-2, 5.19 ERA) is set to match up against Giants ace Logan Webb (1-0, 1.89 ERA).
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