Bombers are nearly no-hit, wasting Weathers' best start as a Yankee

NEW YORK – There was good news and bad news for the Yankees on Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Left-hander Ryan Weathers had his best outing of the season, but New York’s bats remained freezing cold as left-hander Jeffrey Springs was dealing in the Athletics’ 1-0 win. It was the first series loss for the Yankees this year.

Springs threw darts throughout the game. In fact, he had a no-hitter going until Ben Rice singled to right field with one out in the seventh to put runners on first and second. The runners advanced to second and third on a double steal with two outs, but Springs got Austin Wells to fly out to left fielder Tyler Soderstrom to end the threat.

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Springs left the game after that, allowing just the one hit, striking out six and walking two. He didn’t blow hitters away with his fastball. In fact, his fastball was clocked in the low 90s, but he had great command of his pitches.

“He had a good four-seam with a really good changeup,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He stayed unpredictable with both [pitches]. He did a really good job of mixing his pitches. … Obviously, he gave us some problems.”

Weathers was just as good. He threw a season-high eight innings, allowed one run and struck out seven. The run scored in the seventh when Max Muncy led off with a triple and came home on a single by Soderstrom. The Yankees needed Weathers to give them length because they are in a stretch of playing on 13 consecutive days.

“We used our bullpen a lot. That’s the silver lining here – it kind of reset those [relievers] a little bit. We got a really strong outing from Ryan,” Boone said.

What a difference five days make. Last Saturday, the Marlins had long at-bats during the Yankees’ 9-7 victory. It seemed like Weathers always had full counts against Miami. He lasted just 3 2/3 innings, threw 88 pitches (52 strikes) and allowed three runs.

After the outing, Weathers talked to his father, former Major Leaguer David Weathers, who told his son to slow down and start using his brain while on the mound. The younger Weathers was relying only on his arm.

“He harps on me for strike throwing,” Weathers said about his dad. “… In the last couple of outings, I haven’t used my brain. I’ve been raised in the game with him. I’ve been at this level long enough to know you have to pitch with your brain out there.”

It was a different story against the Athletics. Weathers was pitching and not trying to overthrow. Even his misses were close to being strikes.

“My mechanics were a little more fluid. … I was working on being more fluid on the mound. It really helps when my mind is relaxed and I trust myself,” Weathers said. “You can do it all day in the bullpen, playing catch, but until you do it in a game — now I know what that feeling is like of just being calm on the mound. Hopefully, I can keep throwing strikes.”

Now the Yankees have to settle their offensive woes. In their past two games, the Yankees have collected five hits, scored two runs and struck out 22 times.

“Look, we got shut down today. We didn’t generate much. We didn’t hit a lot of balls on the screws at all and didn’t create much traffic,” Boone said. “We have a few guys struggling to get on track a little bit. Hopefully, we’ll get things going.”

Maybe it’s a good thing that the Yankees get away from the Bronx for a little while. They travel to Tropicana Field to face the Rays in a three-game series starting Friday. They will be in a much warmer climate. During their six-game homestand, the temperature never reached 60 degrees. The temperature was no higher than 50 degrees during the three-game set against the Athletics.

“That’s one of the challenges you have to deal with early in the season – at times,” Boone said. “Both sides had the same conditions. Hopefully, when we get down [to St. Petersburg], we’ll get a couple of guys going. Obviously, we are going to face good pitching when we play the Rays. Hopefully, we’ll get some guys rolling.”