Yankees hold on to beat Brewers on Opening Day at the Stadium

An injury-plagued Yankees spring training that seemingly brought everything but the locusts and frogs begat an Opening Day in which, at least for one afternoon, that ugliness could be forgotten.

Carlos Rodon struck out seven in a strong 5 1⁄3 innings, leadoff hitter extraordinaire Austin Wells homered in his first at-bat and the bullpen honored the preseason plaudits thrown its way — though it included a few tense moments late — by allowing one run in 3 2⁄3 innings in a 4-2 victory over the Brewers on Thursday afternoon in front of 46,208 at the Stadium.

“Huge team win,” Wells said.

Wells’ homer was the first Opening Day leadoff home run by a Yankee and the first Opening Day leadoff home run by a catcher in MLB history.

“We’ve been seeing it all spring,” Aaron Judge said of Wells, who led the Yankees in homers during spring training with six.

The Yankees, who began the season with 11 players on the injured list, have won four straight on Opening Day and improved to 70-52-1 in season openers.

New closer Devin Williams escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the ninth with only one run allowed, but not before throwing 36 pitches.

Williams allowed a leadoff single by Joey Ortiz, a double by Isaac Collins and a walk to Jake Bauers to load the bases with none out. Brice Turang got ahead 3-and-1 before lifting a sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-2. But with runners at second and third, Williams struck out Jackson Chourio swinging at a changeup (he struck out five times) to end an eight-pitch at-bat and struck out Christian Yelich swinging at an inside fastball to end a seven-pitch at-bat.

“Got the first one out of the way,” said Williams, who spent the first six seasons of his career with Milwaukee before being traded to the Yankees in a deal in which Nestor Cortes, who will start Saturday, joined the Brewers. “It wasn’t the easiest one.”

Said manager Aaron Boone: “Loved that he didn’t break. He just kept making pitches.”

Wells, the first Yankees catcher to hit leadoff in the history of the franchise, put the Yankees ahead for good on Freddy Peralta’s third pitch of the day, lining a 2-and-0 fastball just over the rightfield wall. The second-year catcher homered in his first leadoff at-bat in spring training, too, blasting one to right on March 7 against the Blue Jays.

“Seemed like he carried it over from spring training,” Rodon said. “He set the tone for us and we just ran with it.”

Anthony Volpe, whose locker now is next to Wells’ in the Stadium clubhouse, made it 2-0 in the second when he lifted a 1-and-1 fastball a few rows beyond where his close friend hit his first-inning blast.

Rodon, who allowed 31 homers in 32 starts last season, mostly held the Brewers in check. He was victimized by the long ball when Vinny Capra led off the third by ripping a 2-and-2, 95-mph fastball to leftfield to make it 2-1.

Rodon, tabbed to start Opening Day because Gerrit Cole is out for the season, allowed one run, four hits and two walks. A fastball-slider pitcher most of his career, he utilized those pitches effectively, but also four others, including a sinker he worked on in spring training.

“He had command of himself and his pitches,” Boone said. “Probably ran out [of gas] a little bit there in the sixth when he had the two walks. But really sharp I thought command-wise. Good presence with everything. I thought he was really in command of his emotions out there and just executed a lot.”

The Yankees got to the Milwaukee bullpen in the seventh, tagging righthander Jared Koenig for two runs. Ben Rice walked, Oswaldo Cabrera lined a single to center and Judge hit an RBI double off the third-base bag. Cody Bellinger’s sacrifice fly made it 4-1.

Lefthander Tim Hill took over for Rodon with two on and one out in the sixth and got out of the inning, retiring Collins on a forceout on the ninth pitch of his at-bat to leave the bases loaded.

Righthander Mark Leiter Jr. struck out two in a perfect seventh and Luke Weaver allowed a walk but struck out two in a scoreless eighth.

The successful afternoon didn’t come close to washing away the bitter taste left from the last time the Yankees played on this field, which was Game 5 of the World Series against the Dodgers. That night included a comically bad five-run fifth inning in which two errors and Cole’s failure to cover first base helped flush a 5-0 lead as the Dodgers sent the Yankees into the offseason.

The pessimism born from that defeat trailed the club all winter and throughout spring training as the injuries mounted. And mounted. And mounted.

Thursday afternoon brought a bit of respite from it all.

“It was a great win,” Judge said. “All-around, from the very beginning. Carlos going out there and gives us a shutdown first inning. Wellsy coming up and giving us an early lead. The place was rocking.”