San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
WEATHERS USES 2-SEAM IMPROV ACT
Altitude can do things to a baseball.
Yu Darvish knew that before he went into his Mexico City bullpen in late April, played with the release point on his sweeper, figured out exactly how to throw it and still largely stayed away from the pitch Friday night at Coors Field.
A day later, Ryan Weathers was struggling to keep his four-seamer low in the strike zone and decided to try something new: A twoseamer.
He hadn’t thrown one since 2021 and certainly didn’t go into Saturday’s game looking at the pitch as a way to get through a start roughly a mile above sea level.
Call it Coors Field Improv 101.
“In the third inning, I started throwing two-seamers — and I never throw two seamers — because I couldn’t keep the ball down,” Weathers said after the Padres’ 3-2 win on Saturday over the Rockies. “I started throwing two-seamers and got some weird takes and some bad swings. Some change-ups were cutting. Some were fading. It was, make it serviceable and get through the outing.”
And Weathers did, striking out two, allowing just three hits and one run on Nolan Jones’ second-inning homer. He threw 25 of his 43 pitches for strikes and exited after three innings to start a bullpen game that went according to plan, even if Padres manager Bob Melvin declined to telegraph the team’s blueprint a day earlier.
Asked on Friday if it would be a normal start for Weathers, Melvin smiled and said: “I wouldn’t tell you if it isn’t.”
Melvin had more reason to smile Saturday.
“Better hop on his fastball for sure,” Melvin said. “Locating it a little bit better. After a little bit of a tough spot, we wanted to get him going. He’s a guy that’s going to be a key guy for us, so to kind of shorten it a little bit and let him pitch well and go after it as hard as he can for not as long, I think it ended up being a good thing for him. But he looked better today.”
Weathers had allowed a 7.79 ERA in four starts since he returned from Triple-a El Paso, including allowing five runs — four earned — in 12⁄3 innings on Sunday to the Cubs at Petco Park. At some point he figures to give the rotation spot back to Seth Lugo, who threw to hitters on Friday in Arizona and figures to get in another game of some kind before returning.
But Saturday was a much-needed step in the right direction.
“Last outing wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to be,” Weathers said. “It was nice to get my feet back under me today. Any time you can escape Coors with giving up one run, it’s kind of a good outing. There’s a lot to build on. I thought the stuff was a lot better today compared to the last outing.”
And hey, now he’s got a two-seamer again. Maybe.
“We’ll see,” Weathers said with a laugh. “It might be just hit-or-miss today, but we’ll see going forward.”
Bogearts’ strides
Playing a second straight day since sitting four straight games with left wrist discomfort, Xander Bogaerts went 1-for-2 with two walks and a run scored. He collected two hits on Friday, including a first-inning double to leftcenter field that told him all he needed to know — even if he had to rush to second base after thinking he’d put one over the wall.
“A couple rows back,” Bogaerts said of his thought off the bat.
He added: “I hadn’t pulled some balls in a while. It’s good to be able to do that again.”
Joe didn’t go
RHP Joe Musgrove did not make the trip to Coors Field as the team opted to allow him to avoid a flight and altitude adjustment for a series in which he was not scheduled to pitch. Musgrove, who’s been continuing between-work in San Diego, will start Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians at Petco Park. “He’s had a lot going on from the start of the year, his shoulder and all that sort of thing,” Melvin said. “We just wanted to keep him out of the altitude.”