CLEVELAND — It was a nonanswer that said a mouthful.
Did Yankees closer Luke Weaver, who had been excellent for more than a month, possibly show signs of tiring under an increasingly heavy workload when he suffered a meltdown that led to the New York Yankees’ devastating playoff loss on Thursday night?
“I mean,” manager Aaron Boone said, “playoffs.”
Translation: It didn’t matter to Boone what led to Weaver falling apart in the ninth inning and then Clay Holmes surrendering a crushing walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth of the Yankees’ 7-5 defeat to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field.
What mattered was that it happened at all and that the Yankees need to recover from it in time for Game 4 on Friday night. The Yankees are ahead, 2-1, in the best-of-seven series.
“Sucks losing like that,” Boone said. “But kind of a classic game, and we’ll be ready to roll (Friday).”
When the top-seeded Yankees beat the fifth-seeded Kansas City Royals in the AL Division Series, they rode their bullpen stalwarts Weaver and Holmes while mixing in Tommy Kahnle and Tim Hill.
Weaver and Holmes pitched in every game in the division series and in the first three games of the championship series. They didn’t allow a run over the span. Weaver had four saves and he made three appearances of an inning-plus.
Their good fortune changed Thursday. And it has to worry the Yankees that it could be a sign of things to come, especially as they’re in a stretch of three games in three days following Wednesday’s off day.
To add injury to insult: Righty reliever Ian Hamilton left in the sixth inning with left calf tightness and Boone said he didn’t know Hamilton’s status for Friday.
Weaver and Holmes denied that they were tiring.
“Feeling good,” Holmes said.
“I feel like it’s coming out good and the body’s solid,” Weaver said.
Big Christmas’ game-tying homer via NTT #BallparkCam 👀@CleGuardians | #GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/l0MotnxDmP
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Weaver was in the midst of his first full season as a reliever after spending the first 11 seasons of his professional career — both minor-league and major-league — as a starting pitcher. Weaver was a first-round pick in 2014, but he never found traction as a big-league starter, bouncing around six organizations despite possessing high-level stuff. This season, he was a revelation, making 62 appearances with a 2.89 ERA and taking over as the Yankees’ closer in September when Holmes faltered. Weaver finished with 12 saves during the regular season.
Meanwhile, Holmes made a team-high 67 appearances with a 3.14 ERA and 30 saves, but also 13 blown saves — one shy of tying the MLB record. Going into Thursday, his streak of 14 2/3 scoreless innings to start his career in the postseason was just behind Mariano Rivera (16 innings) in franchise history.
Aaron Judge said he wasn’t worried about Weaver and Holmes.
“You don’t like to see it in that situation but these guys have been so good for us all season long but especially in the postseason — these guys have been lights out,” he said. “Stuff like this happens. I think everybody has faith in our guys.”
The Yankees’ faith looked like it was about to pay off once again. Weaver entered the eighth inning with a one-run lead with two outs and runners on first and second base, replacing Kahnle. He escaped the jam with a strikeout.
But he encountered trouble in the ninth. Protecting a two-run lead, Josè Ramírez ripped a one-hopper that first baseman Anthony Rizzo played off his chest and saw squirt away from him for an error to lead off the frame. But then Weaver got Josh Naylor to ground into a double play.
Then he worked No. 5 hitter Lane Thomas to an 0-2 count before he made a crucial mistake, leaving a fastball low and inside but over the plate. Thomas crushed it off the top of the wall in left-center field for a double. And Jhonkensy Noel made him pay for throwing a fat changeup in a 1-0 count, demolishing it 404 feet and tying the game at 5-5.
In the 10th, Holmes gave up a single to Bo Naylor on his first pitch of the inning before Brayan Rocchio bunted Naylor to second. When Steven Kwan hit a grounder back to Holmes, he looked at third base and decided to throw to first base instead for the second out. Then, in a 2-1 count, David Fry blasted a sinker Holmes left up and over the middle for the game-ending homer.
Holmes and Weaver each blamed execution, though Weaver added that maybe he should have thrown a different pitch to Noel.
Weaver was asked if he felt like he was “running on fumes” considering how much he’s pitched.
“I won’t answer that, as far as fumes,” he said. “I feel you just come in everyday (and) you prepare yourself to do the best you can. After the game, recovery.”
Weaver also talked about perhaps feeling a difference in adrenaline after getting the final out of the eighth and then sitting through the top of the ninth before entering to close it out.
“The workload and everything,” Weaver said, “it is what it is. Everybody has played the whole season and done their thing. There’s never any excuse.”
No excuse, but there could be a worry for the Yankees that Weaver and Holmes — their two bullpen horses — are losing steam.
(Top photo of Luke Weaver: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
