Ryan Weathers was dominant Sunday.
The inconsistent lefty the Yankees traded for from Miami this offseason has had a reliably unpredictable start to his tenure in The Bronx, but against a Royals team that’s lost seven in a row and giving the Mets a run for their money when it comes to ineptitude, Weathers was dominant.
In a 7-0 victory, he tossed 7 ¹/₃ shutout innings and gave up just five hits and a walk while striking out eight.
It’s starts like this one the Yankees envisioned when they added him to the rotation in the offseason, looking to harness his tantalizing repertoire.
The results weren’t great in his previous start, when the lefty allowed four homers to the Angels, but Weathers also gave up just one other hit in that outing, while walking none and striking out 10.
“There was a lot of good in the last outing,’’ Aaron Boone said before the game. “It was a case of a team [the Angels] swinging the bat well and not getting his fastball where he needed to. He had a hard time locating it.”
Overall, Boone said he felt Weathers had been “throwing the ball really well. His stuff has been excellent.”
Weathers said his location was much better Sunday, missing away on pitches near the corner, instead of in the middle of the plate.
“There was a lot of work between starts, focusing on location and just relaxing,” Weathers said.
Now they have to try to keep him there.
It’s part of a pattern Weathers has shown so far with the Yankees, as he was solid in his debut in Seattle, struggled against his former team, the Marlins, in his second start, was outstanding versus the A’s and then shaky against the Angels before Sunday’s promising start with Kansas City in town.
It probably didn’t hurt that Weathers, who got a total of two runs of support in three of his first four outings, saw the Yankees offense erupt against overmatched Cole Ragans on Sunday at the Stadium.
Aaron Judge said of Weathers, “I was just happy we were able to get him some runs. He’s pitched his butt off. We haven’t really given him support.”
After giving up a one-out single to Bobby Witt Jr. in the first, Weathers had a three-run lead the next time he stepped on the mound, courtesy of a Judge two-run homer and a sacrifice fly by Austin Wells.
The Yankees tacked on a run in the second on a Ben Rice home run and three more in the fifth, when Trent Grisham went deep.
By then, Weathers was well into another terrific showing.
He retired 14 of 15 following Witt’s first-inning base hit and then got some help from the Royals in the sixth.
Elias Díaz singled with one out and Witt had a two-out double to center later in the inning. The slow-footed Díaz was unwisely sent home and a nice relay from Grisham to shortstop José Caballero to Wells at the plate was in plenty of time to keep Kansas City off the board.