The Yankees' bullpen has been much-maligned all season and was the team's weakness heading into the postseason.
So it's no surprise the bullpen was at the forefront of the team's Game 1 loss to the Red Sox on Tuesday — coupled with the removal of starter Max Fried, of course. But while the decision to pull Fried after 6.1 innings will be scrutinized, bringing in Luke Weaver will also be questioned, and manager Aaron Boone was asked his thoughts on bringing in the right-hander in the spot he did.
"I am just taking that part of the order, then I want [Devin] Williams or [Fernando] Cruz in that kind of [Trevor] Story, [Alex] Bregman [lane]. So I will take Weave at the bottom of the order, especially an out in the books."
Weaver, who became the team's closer on their World Series run a year ago, has struggled in 2025. He finished the regular season with a 3.62 ERA but pitched to a 9.64 ERA in September, ballooned by a couple of bad outings in the middle of the month. But the 32-year-old didn't have it on Tuesday.
With one out in the seventh, Weaver went up against Ceddanne Rafaela, and lost him to a walk after getting ahead in the count 0-2. A hustle double by Nick Sogard put the Yankees in trouble. Nursing a 1-0 lead, Weaver left a pitch up in the zone to pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida, who laced a two-run single to capture the lead.
"Gets ahead 0-2 with Rafaela there and lost the strike zone," Boone said of the outing. "Placed a couple hits on him where, maybe just a little up with a couple of the pitches more than he wanted. But, you know, getting ahead 0-2 to Rafaela and losing him, that's the one that stinks a little bit."
"Just a really good at-bat, had some really strong at-bats in the past. It’s gone both ways," Weaver said of his at-bat with Rafaela. "That’s a real tough one to swallow when you know you had him in an advantage count. He did a really good job of spoiling some pitches, took some shots, and next thing you know, it’s 3-2, and he did a good job of battling through. Didn’t want to give in, and try to throw a cookie over the plate, still trying to execute. There’s a base open, so I just tried to rifle one and it didn’t go where I wanted."
Entering Tuesday, Rafaela was 2-for-6 with a walk and two home runs against Weaver in his career. There are also three strikeouts in there as well, but Rafaela was victorious when it mattered in Game 1, working a walk after 11 pitches.
Boone was aware of the numbers Rafaela had against Weaver, but felt the spot was right for him.
"I felt good about him going through there, the Sogard and then probably a pinch hit lefty there, just trying to shorten it with Williams and [David] Bednar behind him," Boone said.
Weaver felt his outing overall was "very competitive," but it wasn't perfect and the Red Sox found holes. Weaver allowed two runs without recording an out. Cruz would come in and get the final two outs — after a two-out walk.
"I know there’s a lot of disappointed people, including myself, but just got to be better," Weaver said.
The Yankees need Weaver and the rest of the bullpen to be better — Bednar would allow a key insurance run in the ninth — if they hope to overcome the Red Sox in the Wild Card round, and make a deep October run. The first step is winning Game 2 on Wednesday.
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