Bombers plan to be creative with arms in October
TORONTO — Here’s the October pitch.
Expect the Yankees to be creative in their postseason run. Many arms. Many roles. And why not?
This is not your conventional postseason rotation and the Yankees are going to muster every fastball they can from their stable of playoff pitchers and use their starters in a way to get the most out of their ability as well, including piggy-backing them, it appears.
Nothing is set in stone, but it is going to be a different game in a way.
“It’s exciting to get all these guys back,’’ Aaron Judge told The Post on the day Dellin Betances and Jordan Montgomery returned to the mound in a 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Luis Severino will make his first start Tuesday.
“It’s going to open a lot of doors for us,’’ Judge said, pointing to the possibility of piggy-backing starters. “We have some things to play around with. ... [James] Paxton has been throwing the ball well and we are going to get our ace Severino back. We are going to be able to switch a couple things around. If you start with Severino and come in with [Domingo] German, you got two aces right there. Not a lot of teams are going to want to face those guys.’’
The Yankees have a deep lineup and now a deeper pitching lineup.
“This will help our bullpen too, if you start with Sevy and then German that shortens it so the bullpen doesn’t have to be used as often, we can have matchups or give relievers more rest,’’ Judge said. “I’m excited.’’ So is Aaron Boone. “We’ll probably be a little creative,’’ Boone said. “I would just say it is all on the table. We feel like we have a lot of really good pitchers and we are going to go into the postseason with whether it’s 11, 12, 13 pitchers, that we feel are capable of getting really important outs. We are probably going to need all of them. So, we’ll try and prepare guys for anything and everything and hopefully that will serve us well.’’
Pitch as if every playoff inning
were the ninth inning. That is the way it has to be with this group, especially if the Yankees run into the Astros’ buzz-saw starters.
By being creative we are not just talking about openers.
When you essentially have two closers in Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton along with the big arms of Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Chad Green, who had a clean opening in Sunday’s loss, and others you can mix and match in the postseason, that has built in rest days for the pitching staffs.
This could be the baseball version of the 2004 movie “50 First Dates.” Every game could be seeing something new and the next day something new. A new day.
Chapman carried the 2016 Cubs to the World Series, so he will get plenty of action. His next save will match his career high of 38.
Britton owns a .781 ground-ball percentage, his highest since 2016. Green has recorded 72 strikeouts to 12 walks since Memorial Day.
Then there is the added ingredient of Betances, who made his 2019 debut Sunday, striking out the two batters he faced in the fourth inning, freezing Reese McGuire with a perfectly placed 95 mph fastball and then locking up Brandon Drury on an 84 mph curve ball.
“It’s exciting, especially when it’s some of the guys we are talking about that have a chance of being a big part of what we do moving forward,’’ Boone said of getting arms like Severino and Betances back at this time of year when most pitching staffs are staggering to the finish line.
The cavalry — in the form of Betances — arrived Sunday morning to the clubhouse wearing a “Sockman’’ shirt.
The Yankees will have to continue hitting home runs in the postseason and limit opposing home runs. Asked if he would like to hit this 2019 baseball, Boone, 46, smiled and said, “I’m too old to hit this ball.’’
Boone is going to have to creatively use all his arms to give the Yankees an October advantage to keep other teams from hitting this ball a long way.