When Gerrit Cole finally walked off the mound after his last pitch Sunday, with two outs in the seventh inning, the Yankees were in a rare position compared to the rest of their young season.
The bullpen only had seven outs to cover and an eight-run lead with which to work.
It was a stark contrast from the Yankees’ first 15 games of the season, when the majority of their relievers’ work came in tight games and often with long bridges to get to the ninth inning. But despite the high-stress workload, Aaron Boone was feeling good about how his bullpen has handled that weight.
“I do feel like we’ve been able to still protect our guys and that’s a credit to them,” Boone said before Sunday’s 10-2 win over the Guardians. “They’ve all played a role and we’ve leaned on them all heavily.”
The results have been strong — the Yankees entered Monday with a bullpen ERA of 2.44, the fifth-lowest mark in MLB — but Boone has not yet had to lean on any one reliever too often. The Yankees’ 70 bullpen innings as of Monday ranked the seventh-most in MLB, but only Michael King’s 10 ²/₃ innings — as a hybrid long reliever — ranked among the top 40 relievers for innings pitched.
King and Clarke Schmidt have been key in providing multi-inning outings to help protect the rest of the bullpen. That was on full display this weekend, as King was electric for three innings Friday while protecting a 4-1 lead and bridging the gap from starter Jameson Taillon to closer Aroldis Chapman, likely giving three other high-leverage relievers the night off.
Through 16 games, Boone has asked six of his relievers to pitch on back-to-back days — Chapman three times; Chad Green, Clay Holmes and Lucas Luetge twice; and Jonathan Loaisiga and Miguel Castro once.
“The fact that they’ve all shared the load has allowed us to not have to overuse any of them to this point,” Boone said. “But especially as we get into May and have to cut down a couple more pitchers [the Yankees will be forced to go from 15 pitchers to 13 when rosters revert to 26 after May 1], that’s where it’s important to really get the offense going and to make sure our starters are giving us those consistent starts. That ultimately is what’s going to protect them moving forward.”
When Isiah Kiner-Falefa came to the plate Saturday with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the tying run on second base, he had a secret weapon in his back pocket.
Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase was firing 100 mph cutters, but Kiner-Falefa had seen them before — from his days as a catcher, when both he and Clase were in the Rangers organization.
“Just the confidence of seeing what he’s done before [helps],” the Yankees shortstop said.
Kiner-Falefa fouled off a 1-1 cutter before driving a 100 mph fastball for a game-tying double.