Ryan Weathers lost nine pounds - and then a no-hitter and game he deserved to win

BALTIMORE — Ryan Weathers got violently ill, had to quarantine from his newborn, lost nine pounds, returned to the New York Yankees rotation with his rotation spot in jeopardy and promptly took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

Yet all the toil of a turbulent two weeks went for naught.

Weathers, the Yankees left-hander turned over a one-hit shutout with one out in the seventh to his bullpen on Monday, May 11, only to see lefty Brent Headrick give up a towering three-run home run to Baltimore Orioles DH Coby Mayo.

Gone was the two-run advantage Weathers handed him. Moments later, the Yankees were stewing in their fourth consecutive loss, a 3-2 setback to the offensively impotent Orioles, a team they steamrolled in four games in the Bronx just a week ago.

It was not the outcome the Yankees expected. Nor was it anything Weathers deserved, not at this odd point in his career.

Weathers was working on eight days of rest, because he fell ill the day of his most recent start on May 2. He spent the next couple of days with his insides turned out, leading to the nine-pound weight loss.

A further indignity: Weathers and his wife Thayer welcomed their first child, Paul David Weathers, on April 22. Weathers’ virus meant he had to sleep on a different floor at home than wife and newborn.

“It’s definitely been a couple weeks, for sure,” says Weathers. “But that doesn’t stop me from doing my job.

“My job is to go out and compete and throw up as many zeroes and get as many outs as I can get.”

Adding to the drama: His time in the Yankees rotation was ticking down as he recovered. Left-hander Carlos Rodón returned from offseason elbow surgery on May 10; Rodón’s procedure largely spurred the Yankees to acquire Weathers from Miami in the offseason.

And ace Gerrit Cole has now made five rehab starts and should line up to rejoin the rotation by month’s end.

With his future in flux, Weathers went out and pitched the game of his life – even as he was unaware he was tossing a no-hitter.

He’d never thrown a complete game in 62 career starts and hadn’t thrown more than 101 pitches in a start this season. So at 85 pitches through six no-hit innings, it figured he wouldn’t finish a solo no-hitter.

Yet Weathers bedeviled the Orioles, striking out nine and using an almost equal four-pitch mix of changeup, his sinking and four-seam fastballs and sweeper. The no-hitter was intact until Adley Rutschman – the only Oriole who hit the ball hard off Weathers this night – poked a single to the right of second base.

When Weathers issued just his second walk of the game to Tyler O’Neill, manager Aaron Boone went and got him. With the Yankees suffering three narrow losses at Milwaukee before arriving here, relievers Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz were down.

Headrick was summoned to face the righty-swinging, but .158-hitting Mayo. Boone liked Headrick’s slider against Mayo. Mayo liked the slider Headrick threw him, clubbing it 389 feet out to left field.

A 2-0 lead became a 3-2 deficit. And with the Yankees struggling offensively, that was that.

“We’ve scored zero, three, three, two,” says Boone of the skid that started in Milwaukee. “Pitching’s been there. Continues to be there.

“We gotta get some guys unlocked. We got a handful of guys scuffling.”

None more than Jazz Chisholm, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and is in an 8-for-48 slide, with one extra-base hit in that span. He refused comment after the game.

Despite the skid, the Yankees are still 26-16, though they now trail Tampa Bay by two games.

Weathers, too, has a deficit to make up: He has not gained back all of his nine pounds, noting he needed to rehydrate initially and then coax some food down after a couple days.

“I’m sneaking,” he said of gaining back all the weight he lost off his 6-foot-1, 230-pound frame. “I’m sneaking.”

Just not quite enough to add a historic night to his career.