Jhony Brito debuts with five shutout innings; Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton homer in Yankees' win over Giants

A Yankees rotation held together with baling wire and duct tape received some needed positive vibes Sunday afternoon.

Jhony Brito, a righthander the club liked at the start of spring training but not one it anticipated needing for starter duty so quickly, made his big-league debut Sunday against the Giants and more than delivered.

Backed by home runs from Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka, Brito allowed two hits and a walk in five innings in a 6-0 victory in front of 42,053 at the Stadium.

“Fun to watch,” Stanton said. “He was big-time for us.”

Added Aaron Boone: “Just a really good performance and an important performance.”

Brito, 25, signed by the Yankees in 2015 out of the Dominican Republic for $35,000, cruised after a 27-pitch first inning, striking out six.

“[Looked] like the same guy I saw last year,” said one rival scout who saw Brito in 2022, when he went 6-2 with a  3.31 ERA with  Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. “A lot of strikes. Good changeup.”

Brito, who threw 76 pitches (51 strikes), used the changeup to record each of his six strikeouts.

“The arm action. He’s got a full sell on it,” Gerrit Cole said of Brito’s changeup, a pitch the ace took notice of during spring training. “Looks like the fastball, so he’s able to create good discrepancy with the ball flight.”

Brito, who went 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in four exhibition outings (two starts), said he was “not nervous” going into the start. That was in large part because of advice he received from veterans such as Jimmy Cordero, Wandy Peralta and Luis Severino.

“Basically [they] told me to focus and keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing during spring training and everything will be fine,” Brito said through his interpreter.

Brito, who struck out the side in the third, pitched with a lead when he retook the mound in the fourth.

Judge teed off on a slider from Ross Stripling with one out in the bottom of the third, hitting his second homer in three games to make it 1-0. Stanton  hit his second homer later in the inning, a colossal two-run shot to center  that traveled 485 feet and came off his bat at 117.8 mph, to make it 3-0. Higashioka  led off the fourth by homering off Stripling, who came in 0-5 with a 4.55 ERA in seven career games against the Yankees, for a 4-0 lead.

Anthony Volpe led off the seventh with a walk, later swiped third as part of a double steal with Gleyber Torres and scored on Anthony Rizzo’s sacrifice fly. Torres, who also had reached on a walk, scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-0.

Brito’s most taxing inning was the first, and even then, he allowed only one baserunner. He struck out LaMonte Wade Jr. on four pitches, the last of those a 1-and-2 changeup, and former Met Michael Conforto battled for 10 pitches before flying softly to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, making his first career start in center.  J.D. Davis lashed a single to left and Brito got Joc Pederson to bounce back to the mound.

Brito needed just 12 pitches to make it through a perfect second, striking out two, a sign he was beginning to settle in.

Cordero, Ron Marinaccio and Colten Brewer  threw a combined four scoreless innings after Brito’s terrific debut.

“I’ve always thought about debuting and having a good debut,” he said. “It’s something I’ve thought about it and the reason why is you have to be confident to do your job. If you start thinking about bad outcomes, that’s usually when things get out of hand. So I’m very happy.”