A rough first inning cost Yankees left-hander Ryan Weathers dearly, as he surrendered four runs in that opening frame in the Bombers’ 7-6 loss at the hands of the Atlanta Braves on Friday afternoon at CoolToday Park in North Port. Things did get interesting in the ninth, though.
Atlanta got to the last inning up 7-1, but Tyler Hardman singled with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth to plate two runs, and then Garrett Martin launched a three-run bomb to put the Yankees within one. After Ornelas’ blast, however, the Bombers couldn’t do any more damage, as Owen Cobb lined out, Jorbit Vivas struck out, and while Ernesto Martínez Jr. singled, Kenedy Corona popped out to shortstop to end the game.
The Yankees are now 13-7 in Grapefruit League play, while the Braves improved to 13-5 with their win. New York simply couldn’t touch Atlanta’s starter Didier Fuentes, who pitched three perfect innings with five strikeouts to his name. The righty debuted for the Braves last year and won’t even turn 21 until June, and since they’ll now be entering the season without the injured Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, and Joey Wentz, he certainly made his case to new skipper Walt Weiss that he should have a role on the 2026 club.
New York’s starter didn’t fare nearly as well. Mauricio Dubón welcomed Weathers to Atlanta’s spring home with a leadoff home run. Later in the first, the southpaw surrendered RBI singles to Austin Riley, Jonah Heim, and Kyle Farmer to make it 4-0 before he could complete the first three outs.
After that, Weathers settled in and threw 2.2 scoreless frames with four punchouts before being lifted in the fourth. He touched 100 mph with his four-seamer and averaged 98.4 mph, but could only get one whiff on 13 swings with the pitch.
Weathers’ sweeper, however, was on point, earning him a whopping seven whiffs on 10 swings for a 70-percent whiff rate. The changeup gave him three additional swings and misses to round out his total for the afternoon to 11. Weathers, whose spring training ERA is now at 8.68, managed to stretch out to 67 pitches. He appears to have hit a bit of a wall, but as long as his stuff and velocity keep trending up, there shouldn’t be a reason to worry about him. Barring injury, Weathers should slot in somewhere behind Max Fried and Cam Schlittler in the back end of the Yankees’ Opening Day rotation, with Will Warren and Luis Gil likely joining him.
The Yankees finally scored in the top of the fourth, when Max Schuemann doubled and crossed the plate on a Cody Bellinger single against Dylan Dodd.
That marked Bellinger’s only hit on the day, and it proved to be a quiet one for the Bombers’ more familiar contingent. Ryan McMahon (playing a clean shortstop), and outfielders Trent Grisham, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Randal Grichuk combined to go 0-for-11 with six K’s.
Although none of the members of the Yankees’ bullpen today should be on the Opening Day roster, they fared decently enough on this afternoon. Kelly Austin got Ozzie Albies to ground out and was followed by an impressive Yovanny Cruz, who touched 101.5 mph and struck out two brand names—Matt Olson and Austin Riley—in a perfect inning. From there, it got a little bumpier, as Dom Hamel allowed a couple of runs in two innings of relief, surrendering five hits and a walk while failing to record a single strikeout. Osvaldo Bido conceded the Braves’ seventh run late in the game.
The Yankees will play again on Saturday, as they return home to George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, starting at 1:05 pm ET. Max Fried will toe the rubber for the Bombers in preparation for his Opening Day start. In the meantime, if you’re interested in World Baseball Classic action, Austin Wells and the Dominican Republic will face Korea tonight at 6:30pm ET on FS2, while Aaron Judge and Team USA will contend with Canada at 8pm ET on Fox.
