You see it and you don’t want to say it?
Because even thinking it, let alone expressing it, feels like baseball sacrilege. So be careful in your wording. The last thing you want to do is compare someone to Beethoven or Michael Jordan based on a small sample size.
So what is the appropriate language to talk about the best of something in a short period of time? You want to talk about Al-Mo-st seeing a bit of genius without making fun of it. You don’t want to just take a Mo-rsel in time and overdo anything. You want to avoid getting caught up in the Mo-ment.
So here’s the comfort zone: Have you noticed that Luke Weaver is kind of on a Mariano Rivera run? Please, please, please note the use of the word “run.” Rivera didn’t run. He had two decades of genius – the greatest regular-season reliever of all time and perhaps the greatest postseason pitcher of all time and the only unanimous-Mo-us elect to the Hall of Fame.
Thus, one month contains traces of Rivera, but not the entire month. But since he officially became the unofficial closer on September 6, isn’t Weaver suited to this Mo-de? Don’t you see a little “Mo” in what Weaver does?
You know the skinny, hyper-athletic 6-foot-2 former right-handed starter failed to find the role of his life. Mo-wing down the queues with economy and lack of drama. The super-fast punch throw. The re-valuation of walks and home runs and good luck to the opponent who gets three singles before three outs to score a run. Movement on the pitches to avoid the barrel of the bat. Domination against lefties. The endurance to last more than one round. The controlled e-Mo-tion that allows you to restart a game in the middle of the stress of October.
“It’s a high level of premium strike throwing,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake acknowledged when asked about Rivera’s lineup. “It’s a high level of awareness of where to use your fastball to stay away from the strong points of the barrel. [of the bat].”
This allows Weaver to do for Aaron Boone what Rivera once did for Joe Torre and Joe Girardi: change the math of the game. Rivera’s managers played the game backwards. It was a 24-out game and often at this time of year a 21-out game for the other team, as Rivera had between the final three and six outs. The opposition knew it. Pinch hitters entered the game early, because why wait for futility against Rivera? Desperation appeared earlier for the opposition. They knew Rivera was there. And a Yankee manager could line everyone up that way.
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Weaver is not at this Mo-untaintop. After all, the Division Series featured a Royal team that hit mostly singles and didn’t walk or strike out much. In the Yankees’ three-game-to-one triumph, Kansas City collected six extra-base hits and seven walks and hit .237. The entire Yankee bullpen was superb (one unearned run in 15 ²/₃ innings), with Tommy Kahnle’s prep work and a resurgent Clay Holmes standing out.
But Weaver was much more than that. He used his fastball/changeup repertoire (mixed in the cutter) to face 15 Royals, allow two singles, strike out five, not only create zero walks, but went three balls on a single. Like Holmes, he appeared in all four matches and saved all three victories. He had more than three outs twice. The lefties were hitless in five at-bats with two whiffs.
And this has been going on since Boone changed his pen. Since the de-Mo-tion of Holmes closer and, therefore, the pro-Mo-tion of Weaver on September 6, he has been Mo-ney. During that span, including the Division Series, Weaver pitched 15 ¹/₃ unearned run innings, three walks and 29 strikeouts – or 52.7 percent of those he faced. Lefties are 2 for 23 against him – both singles. And the entire bullpen — as was once the case with Rivera — has since lined up comfortably with a 1.68 ERA, a .177 opponent’s batting average and just six of 29 legacy runners scoring.
“There’s always some of that confidence and momentum that’s felt and passed on,” Holmes said of the group.
Once again, it was the Royals in the playoffs and in a very short period since September 6th. Relievers – even the best – are unstable. It was tough to be more dominant than Devin Williams in sending the Mets into a 1-2-3 ninth in the second wild-card game, and the next night the brilliant Brewers closer gave up the game-clinching home run. ninth inning to Pete Alonso. .
Emmanuel Clase is probably the best reliever in the sport, allowing five earned runs in 74 ¹/₃ all regular season. Then, the Guardians right-hander allowed four earned runs between outings in Games 2 and 4 of the Division Series against the Tigers.
Even Rivera has given up huge races at times this time of year. But in large part, the comfort he brought with his brilliance was the key to five Yankees championships. Mo-re and Mo-re, the Yankees are experiencing this Rivera tenor with Weaver. You see Mo in him while bringing Mo out of him.
If he can keep this up, it won’t be the total Rivera, but it would be Mo-mentous.
