diff --git a/processing/src/main/java/io/druid/jackson/DruidDefaultSerializersModule.java b/processing/src/main/java/io/druid/jackson/DruidDefaultSerializersModule.java
index 6184221a1db..a0cc2b87f73 100644
--- a/processing/src/main/java/io/druid/jackson/DruidDefaultSerializersModule.java
+++ b/processing/src/main/java/io/druid/jackson/DruidDefaultSerializersModule.java
@@ -132,17 +132,17 @@ public class DruidDefaultSerializersModule extends SimpleModule
           public void serialize(Yielder yielder, final JsonGenerator jgen, SerializerProvider provider)
               throws IOException, JsonProcessingException
           {
-            jgen.writeStartArray();
             try {
+              jgen.writeStartArray();
               while (!yielder.isDone()) {
                 final Object o = yielder.get();
                 jgen.writeObject(o);
                 yielder = yielder.next(null);
               }
+              jgen.writeEndArray();
             } finally {
               yielder.close();
             }
-            jgen.writeEndArray();
           }
         }
     );
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/io/druid/server/QueryResource.java b/server/src/main/java/io/druid/server/QueryResource.java
index 33bdd519c83..8300b028ff7 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/io/druid/server/QueryResource.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/io/druid/server/QueryResource.java
@@ -147,28 +147,29 @@ public class QueryResource
         log.debug("Got query [%s]", query);
       }
 
-      Sequence results = query.run(texasRanger);
-
-      if (results == null) {
+      Sequence res = query.run(texasRanger);
+      final Sequence results;
+      if (res == null) {
         results = Sequences.empty();
+      } else {
+        results = res;
       }
 
-      try (
-          final Yielder yielder = results.toYielder(
-              null,
-              new YieldingAccumulator()
-              {
-                @Override
-                public Object accumulate(Object accumulated, Object in)
-                {
-                  yield();
-                  return in;
-                }
-              }
-          )
-      ) {
-        long requestTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
+      final Yielder yielder = results.toYielder(
+          null,
+          new YieldingAccumulator()
+          {
+            @Override
+            public Object accumulate(Object accumulated, Object in)
+            {
+              yield();
+              return in;
+            }
+          }
+      );
 
+      try {
+        long requestTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
         emitter.emit(
             new ServiceMetricEvent.Builder()
                 .setUser2(DataSourceUtil.getMetricName(query.getDataSource()))
@@ -202,6 +203,7 @@ public class QueryResource
                   @Override
                   public void write(OutputStream outputStream) throws IOException, WebApplicationException
                   {
+                    // json serializer will always close the yielder
                     jsonWriter.writeValue(outputStream, yielder);
                     outputStream.close();
                   }
@@ -211,6 +213,14 @@ public class QueryResource
             .header("X-Druid-Query-Id", queryId)
             .build();
       }
+      catch (Exception e) {
+        // make sure to close yieder if anything happened before starting to serialize the response.
+        yielder.close();
+      }
+      finally {
+        // do not close yielder here, since we do not want to close the yielder prior to
+        // StreamingOutput having iterated over all the results
+      }
     }
     catch (QueryInterruptedException e) {
       try {