The Yankees have generally gotten off to a winning start this season, with only a few things here and there going wrong. One thing that has definitely gone wrong for them has been the fact that they’ve gotten hardly any production out of the lower order of the lineup. As it turns out, that’s a big issue when the top part of the lineup also has a bad day.
Facing Jeffrey Springs and the Athletics, the Yankees were held to just one hit all day, as it took very late into the game to even get on the board
there. Springs allowed just one hits and two walks in his seven innings, before turning it over the A’s bullpen that didn’t give up much more.
On the mound for the Yankees, you can’t really complain about anything that happened there. While he does go down as the losing pitcher, Ryan Weathers had a very good day. He ended up going eight innings, allowing one run on seven scattered hits, while striking out seven. He very much looked like the intriguing pitcher the Yankees traded for, and that should and probably will be a performance that gets rewarded almost every other time.
However, it wasn’t in this one, as the Yankees’ offense struggled too much, dropping the game and the series in a 1-0 loss to the Athletics.
The pitching matchup on paper didn’t seem like it had massive pitchers’ duel potential, but that’s what it was. As mentioned, the Yankees didn’t record a hit until the seventh, and Weathers was able to at least keep putting up zeroes in the run column, even though the A’s had a couple more chances. Eventually, the Athletics broke through for the game’s only run.
Leading off the top of the seventh, Max Muncy tripled after Cody Bellinger slightly misplayed the ball off the wall. Tyler Soderstrom immediately followed that with a hit of his own to score Muncy.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Yankees finally got into the hit column when Ben Rice singled. Giancarlo Stanton had already drawn a walk, and the hit set up the Yankees’ first real RISP chance of the day, but that failed to amount to anything. Similarly, they had a couple runners on in the eighth for Aaron Judge, but he could only muster an inning-ending ground out.
Despite allowing a double, Paul Blackburn threw a scoreless frame in the top of the ninth to keep the Yankees in striking distance. However, they would only remain in striking distance and not actually striking, as they went down fairly meekly in order in the ninth.
This was a game where you can’t even bemoan them stranding runners in scoring position as, while they did do that a little bit, they didn’t even get a ton of opportunities. The left on base total for the game ended up at just five. As a result, the Yankees have taken a series loss for the first time all season, and we have our first stretch that we can truly complain about in 2026. Hooray?
Having wrapped up their first homestand of the season, the Yankees will now head south. They’re set to make their first trip to the reopened Tropicana Field tomorrow night at 7:10 pm ET. Luis Gil will make his 2026 debut in that one, going opposite Steven Matz.
