Fresh off the injured list and having forgone a rehab assignment following a hamstring strain, Luke Weaver believed he was in a great spot when he was activated on June 20.
“I can tell you right now that I have not felt more fluid and more in control of what I’m doing, dating back even to last year,” Weaver said that day.
But the Yankees’ reliever has not looked like himself since he returned. That troubling trend continued in Friday’s Fourth of July Subway Series-opener, as Weaver served up a 3-2, two-run homer to Jeff McNeil with the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead in the seventh inning.
The Mets ultimately won, 6-5. The Yankees, meanwhile, dropped their fifth straight game despite totaling four homers on Friday afternoon.
Longballs have suddenly become a problem for Weaver.
The righty had allowed just two homers while recording a 1.05 ERA over 25.2 innings before his injury. However, he’s now surrendered four dingers over seven games since coming off the IL. That includes one in each of his last three outings.
Weaver has permitted six earned runs over that smaller stretch, and his ERA has quickly jumped to 3.19. He’s totaled eight earned runs since rejoining a Yankees’ bullpen that has generally been unreliable of late.
Prior to Friday, the Yankees’ bullpen had a 4.95 ERA since June 15. That ranked sixth-worst in baseball. The stretch has highlighted the club’s need for multiple relief upgrades prior to the July 31 trade deadline, and Fernando Cruz’s recent high-grade oblique strain only emphasized that point.
Weaver wasn’t the only Yankees reliever to falter at Citi Field on Friday, as Ian Hamilton gave up a solo homer to Brett Baty in the sixth inning. That put the Mets down one.
Hamilton had been better recently, holding opponents to one unearned run over his last eight games after posting a 5.14 ERA before that. He now has a 3.66 ERA for the season.
