NEW YORK — Ryan Weathers was so disgusted with himself that he drastically changed his approach midway through the season, a rarity for a starting pitcher. It’s not easy to make wholesale changes at a position that requires such precision and game-planning, but the left-hander has done it. And by doing so, it has changed his outlook with the postseason approaching.After an early July start against the Minnesota Twins, in which he allowed four runs across four innings, a shift occurred. His four-seam fastball, his most-used pitch of the season to that point, became his least-used pitch. Weathers was tired of his fastball’s ineffectiveness, particularly with allowing slug. Of the 18 homers he’s allowed this season, nine have come against his four-seamer. He came into his Tuesday night start against the Seattle Mariners allowing a ghastly .598 slugging percentage against his four-seamer.“I’ve been a primary four-seam pitcher for my whole career,” Weathers said after going 5 2/3 innings and allowing just one run Tuesday. “I wouldn’t say pride, but it was just like, I’m tired of getting beat with the long ball. I have four other pitches that aren’t really getting hit into the seats.“Essentially, it’s just what pitches am I not giving up slug on? Even in my last few outings, the hits have been singles. What are the chances of a team stacking up five straight singles against you versus hitting a single and then it’s a two-run homer? That looks a whole lot different when you’re scattering five singles across six innings, instead of earlier in the year being two homers scattered across five hits.”Weathers allowed a sixth-inning solo home run to Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena off his sinker, but it was the only mistake he made. Before that home run, Weathers had a career-high 22 2/3 scoreless-innings streak. It’s the fourth-longest single-season scoreless streak by a Yankees starting pitcher in the last 25 years, trailing Clarke Schmidt’s 28 1/3 innings last season, Gerrit Cole’s 25 2/3 innings in 2023 and CC Sabathia’s 23 2/3 innings in 2011.That success is a credit to Weathers’ openness to evolving. It’s not always this easy to make a change. When the Yankees acquired Carlos Rodón, they pushed him to expand his arsenal from being a two-pitch pitcher to developing a changeup and sinker. It took over a season for that change to get implemented, and it’s resulted in better success. The Yankees’ pitching department has found Weathers to have more of an appetite for adjusting on the fly.Ryan McMahon drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning, after starting pitcher Ryan Weathers had been removed. (Elsa / Getty Images)“Sometimes, guys have a hard time when we bring stuff to them and being willing in the flow of the season to make these kinds of adjustments and limit some of the usage,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. “But the game usually tells you to.”One of the first things the Yankees do when they acquire a pitcher is have a conversation about their arsenal and usage. When the Yankees traded for Weathers this past offseason from the Miami Marlins, they knew he leaned on his fastball, which did not get encouraging results. Many times, the Yankees will allow pitchers to have some runway to let them iron out any struggles they might have with the pitch. That’s what they did with Weathers.