One hit, one loss: Yankees drop series despite dominant Weathers outing

The Yankees fell 1-0 to the A’s to drop their first series of the 2026 campaign. Ryan Weathers took the ball for the Yankees and faced off against Jeffrey Springs. 

“We got shut down today,” Aaron Boone said. “We didn't generate much, we didn't hit a lot of balls on the screws at all.”

Weathers navigated around a one-out single in the first inning and recorded his first strikeout of the ballgame, putting together a scoreless frame. 

Amed Rosario, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger went three up, three down in the bottom half of the first. 

José Caballero reached via an E5 in the third inning, and Rosario worked a walk, but Judge would strike out looking to strand both runners. 

In the top of the fourth, Weathears would allow and leadoff single, but recorded a pair of strikeouts to work a scoreless inning. 

After Rosario's walk in the third, Springs would go on to retire the next 10 hitters to keep the Yankees hitless through six innings. 

Weathers served up a leadoff triple in the top of the seventh inning; Tyler Soderstrom then delivered an RBI single to give the A’s a 1-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the seventh, Giancarlo Stanton worked a one-out walk, Ben Rice followed with the Yankees' first hit of the ballgame on a single to right. However, Randal Grichuk struck out in one of the worst at-bats you will ever see. Then, for whatever reason, Paul Goldschmidt didn't pinch-hit for Austin Wells against a lefty, and Wells flew out to strand both runners. 

Weathers remained in for the top of the eighth and worked a 1-2-3 inning and recorded his seventh punchout of the ballgame. 

Rosario worked a two-out walk in the bottom half of the eighth, but Judge grounded out to strand Rosario at first base. 

Paul Blackburn took over for Weathers in the ninth and worked around a one-out double to put together a scoreless outing. 

Final line for Weathers: eight innings pitched, allowed seven hits, one earned run, no walks, and struck out seven on 101 pitches. Weathers threw his sinker 30% of the time, the sweeper 26%, the changeup 25%, the fastball 18%, the slider 1%, and an unknown pitch, according to Baseball Savant, 1%. Weathers topped out at 97.4 mph and averaged 95.1 on the heater, as well as had 12 swings and misses. 

“Now I know what that feeling is of just being calm on the mound, hopefully I can keep throwing strikes,” Weathers said. 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees went down without any fight to drop their first series of the year. 

The Yankees will be back at it tomorrow night at the ugliest stadium in the MLB, Tropicana Field, against the Rays. Luis Gil will make his season debut for the Yankees, facing off against Steven Matz. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Weathers was outstanding today; he deserved so much better than this. The offense was absolutely pathetic. ONE hit, are you kidding me? There was zero reason for Goldy not to pinch-hit Wells in the seventh against a lefty; that was the Yankees' one chance. Just an extremely frustrating game; this offense has to be better. The Yankees have five guys in the lineup under the Mendoza line, just an absolutely pathetic performance. Grisham isn't worth $22 million a year; McMahon for sure as hell isn't worth $16 million a year. Caballero has been brutal. I can't believe I’m saying this, but I’m excited for Anthony Volpe to come back; There is no way he can be worse than Caballero. Is never easy to hit in the cold dont get me wrong, but I’m tired of that excuse. If this team wants to win it all, they are going to have to learn how to hit in the cold; it's not getting any warmer in October. On to tomorrow, just an insanely frustrating series, if it wasn't for Rosario, the Yankees would have gotten swept. 

“Results haven't been there for us the last couple games, but we'll be alright,” Rice said. “Quality of at-bat is still there. Just got to keep rolling.”