Coming off a doubleheader in which every reliever except Kervin Castro was out, the Yankees could have used more Ryan Weathers on Monday when he lasted just 4 ²/₃ innings.
But after a brutal second and third innings, Weathers was able to score 14, salvaging a night that could have gone much worse.
Weathers gave up one lead but held the next one, playing better as the game went on and solving a pitch problem on the fly in what became an 8-5 win over the Pirates in The Bronx.
“I love those games when it’s tough, and you still give yourself, and you give your team a chance to win,” head coach Aaron Boone said.
That’s what Weathers did when he allowed five runs in the second and third innings but settled down after that.
In the second, the Pirates’ top three hits scored, and the third was an RBI double from Jared Triolo.
From second base, it appeared that Triolo was relaying signals to the batters about when to change.
“I made an in-game adjustment,” Weathers said. “I fired a fastball, and that kind of stopped it.”
The troubles didn’t end, however, with another RBI single in that inning and a two-run homer from rookie sensation Esmerlyn Valdez in the third inning.
The homer came off a slider down the middle, a pitch Weathers said he struggled with and should have gotten away from sooner.
But after Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s second run, A home run during the night, hitting a four-run third that gave the Yankees an 8-5 advantage, Weathers allowed just one run in the fourth and a walk in the fifth, when he was pulled with two outs and watched Angel Chivilli escape part of the danger.
“It wasn’t a great idea for him, he got beat up early one of the nights we played him in the pen, but I like the fact that he was hanging in there,” Boone said.
The Yankees still have no clarity regarding the timeline for Giancarlo Stanton’s return, rehab assignment, or when he will run the bases again.
“I know he’s continuing to progress, it’s going well,” Boone said. “But I don’t have a schedule.”
Little is known publicly about the status of Stanton, who Boone said was “again moving more aggressively and striking against [velocity] “Again” on June 29 after his second calf strain.
Since then, the Yankees have said Stanton has continued his steady progress but have offered few details beyond that.
Losing Aaron Judge for an indefinite period has put an extra spotlight on Stanton because the club hasn’t been able to hit without a pair of sluggers.
Stanton played just 24 games this season before going down and launching three homers while posting a .724 OPS.
The Yankees signed all 20 of their picks.
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Their first two picks — Hunter Dietz from Arkansas and Sean Duncan, from a high school in Canada — are freshmen lefties. The other five pitchers they selected are right-handers. They also announced Luke Pettitte as a two-way player, right-handed pitcher and first baseman. Andy’s son was a right-handed pitcher and power infielder at Dallas Baptist.
Otherwise, they have selected six infielders, four infielders, one catcher and one infielder.
Pittsburgh’s backup catcher on Monday was Rafael Flores, who the Yankees signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022, and who rose through a highly regarded system of developing catchers and touched down for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season.
Flores was dealt to the Buccaneers in the trade that brought David Bednar to the Bronx.
He debuted briefly in June and was called up again earlier this month, showing promise (1.167 OPS) in his early days.
“I really enjoyed Rafa,” Boone said. “We put him in camp [in 2025]before we finished trading it, and I really liked it, and I liked its uptrend. He was happy with the game and was fun to be around. “You could tell he loved the game.”