Yankees' Marcus Stroman can't get out of first inning, club falls to Giants in rain-shortened game

Marcus Stroman insisted in February that he is a starter, not a relief pitcher, and thanks to injuries in the rotation, he got his chance.

Now it is unclear how much longer he will stay in that role.

On a long, cold, rainy, windy, all-around miserable Friday night at Yankee Stadium, Stroman was unable to survive the first inning against the Giants and was the primary culprit in a 9-1 loss — a game that was called with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.

Stroman allowed five runs, four hits and three walks in two-thirds of an inning. He threw 46 pitches after a 27-minute rain delay before the start of the game. The righthander entered the game with a 7.27 ERA and left at 11.57.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Stroman’s left knee was bothering him when he left the mound and that he was undergoing tests after the game.

“When he came into the zone he got hurt, obviously, in and around a couple of walks,” Boone said. “We’ve got to look at it and try and continue to make some adjustments.”

Catcher Austin Wells said Stroman “just didn’t look very comfortable from the start. Just didn’t get ahead and they had some good swings on some pitches, so not a good recipe.”

Mike Yastrzemski led off with a first-pitch double, Willy Adames walked and Jung Hoo Lee homered to rightfield to make it 3-0 after 11 pitches.

Then Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos walked and LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled them in to give the Giants (10-3) a 5-0 lead.

Stroman finally recorded two outs, then allowed a single by Tyler Fitzgerald. Ryan Yarbrough relieved Stroman and struck out Yastrzemski to end the inning.

The Yankees (7-6) got a run back in the second when Anthony Volpe walked and stole second and Wells doubled off the very top of the rightfield wall, narrowly missing a home run.

Wells said he was shocked that the ball died in the wind the way it did. “If I would have realized the wind was blowing that way, I would have run a little harder,” he said. “It was crazy.”

The Giants scored three times against Ian Hamilton and Tim Hill in the fifth to make it 8-1. Then things got out of hand in the sixth as Yoendrys Gomez walked four batters to make it 9-1.

Boone was concerned not only about Gomez’s wildness but also that his velocity was much lower than usual. He went to the mound with a trainer and the umpires called for the tarp under deteriorating conditions.

Boone said he and bench coach Brad Ausmus agreed that “that’s probably the worst conditions we’ve ever experienced. We’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Gomez said through an interpreter that he was fine physically, but “if it’s raining a lot, there comes a point where it’s probably not the best to play the game in.”

The Yankees, who walked 11 Giants, managed only two hits.

The Yankees won Stroman’s first two starts even though he allowed seven runs, eight hits and four walks in 8 2⁄3 innings.

Before Friday night’s game, Boone insisted that he had seen good things from Stroman, the righthander out of Patchogue-Medford High School, who will turn 34 on May 1.

When it was over, he said he still believes Stroman has the stuff to be a viable starter “because I think the movement qualities are there,” Boone said.

The Yankees looked to trade Stroman in the offseason because of an apparent surplus of starting pitchers, but that surplus is no more.

So having him pitch relatively well would have been a boost with Gerrit Cole gone for the year and Luis Gil out until at least June.

Now, with Clarke Schmidt on his way back from right shoulder tendinitis, Stroman’s spot could be in jeopardy.

Schmidt made his second rehab start on Thursday, throwing four scoreless innings with four strikeouts, no walks and four hits allowed for Double-A Somerset.

“I thought he was sharp,” Boone said. “Good, strong four innings, 61 pitches, so we’ll probably insert him [into the rotation] now in five or six days.”

Stroman, whom the Yankees will pay $18.3 million this season, arrived at spring training (two days after the other pitchers) declaring, “I’m a starter. See how it plays out. I’m a starter. I won’t pitch in the bullpen.”

General manager Brian Cashman said in February of Stroman’s “I’m a starter” remark, “That’s vintage Stro. He’s a competitor. And I agree with him, he is a starter. So let’s just see how everything plays out.”

Now we know.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.