How Yankees’ Greg Weissert used simple advice for amazing turnaround after nightmare MLB debut

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Yankees rookie reliever Greg Weissert didn’t need to be talked off a ledge or even get a pep talk after having one of the worst major league pitching debuts you’ll see anywhere in any year.

What the 27-year-old righty from Long Island needed was some good advice on how to calm his nerves the next time his new manager called his number, and there would be a next time Aaron Boone vowed.

Weissert got some tips while texting with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre pitcher Ryan Weber, his Triple-A teammate for much of the season, and then put them to use.

Remember to breathe, Weber told Weissert after his first outing. That sounds silly, but taking the time to take a few deep breaths can add to concentration and calmer nerves.

It worked.

Weissert retired 12 hitters in a row over his second and third big-league outings, six straight last Sunday in Oakland and then six more Tuesday night in Anaheim when he was the winning pitcher in the Yankees’ 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Weissert didn’t control his breathing on his first day as a big leaguer last Thursday in Oakland. Called up from Triple-A that day, Weissert debuted that night by starting the eighth inning with the Yankees ahead 13-1.

Despite the big lead, Weissert was way too nervous to throw strikes. He hit a batter on the first pitch he threw as a big leaguer, he balked before throwing another and then he hit someone else with his second pitch.

The next hitter flied out, but Weissert walked the next two batters, forcing in a run and ending his debut after 20 pitches, just five of them strikes.

Weissert ended up being charged with two more runs when Lucas Luetge pitched next for the Yankees and let two of three inherited runners to score.

“That first outing was rough,” Boone said. “It was not good, and it’s easy to have it snowball on you up here.”

There was no snowballing because Weissert controlled his nerves his next two times out.

“Ryan Weber gave me some advice,” said Weissert, an 18th-round pick out of Fordham in 2016. “He’s a pretty good friend of mine now. We were texting a little bit and he gave me some pointers on just settling in and getting those nerves outs. There was a lot of anticipation and a lot of build up into that debut after all the time you have in the minors. So it definitely sped up a little bit, but I was able to step back and take a look at it objectively and I went to the next one with a different mindset.”

Weissert gained confidence last Sunday after entering the game in the seventh with nobody out and a runner on first with Oakland ahead 4-1. He set down three hitters in a row to end the inning, then came back out for the eighth and had a 1-2-3 inning.

His first semi-high leverage outing was Tuesday night when he replaced injured starter Jameson Taillon for the start of the third inning with the game tied 2-2. Mixing four-seam fastballs, sinkers, sliders and changeups, he set down six hitters in a row again, including Mike Trout on a flyout to center to end the third and Shohei Ohtani on a strikeout swinging with a changeup to start the fourth.

Making this outing even better, the mustachioed 6-foot-2, 215-pounder was awarded a first major league win as a result of the Yankees pulling ahead in the fourth inning and not relinquishing the lead.

“It’s really good to see,” Boone said. “And giving us two innings after (pitching two innings) two days ago, it’s not exactly how I want to do it, but he was so efficient.”

A key to the success, thanks in part to Weber, is Weissert no longer gets nervous facing big-league hitters.

“I think I’m past that stage now,” he said. “It feels great to put it behind me. It was definitely something to think about, but I knew that I got called up for a reason.”

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

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