Luke Weaver’s Game 3 disaster raises Yankees questions about workload

CLEVELAND — Luke Weaver arrived back at Progressive Field on Friday in unfamiliar territory. 

Not only had he pitched in all seven of the Yankees’ playoff games entering Game 4 of the ALCS, he was also coming off the first blown save of his career. 

Weaver’s first month on the job as closer had been dominant, but now he was going to have to respond to allowing a crushing, two-out, game-tying home run to Jhonkensy Noel in Thursday’s Game 3 loss to the Guardians. 

“It’s tough because you feel like you got a lot of momentum out there, especially me, and then you kind of hit this,” Weaver said. “We see it come from both sides, on both teams [Thursday]. We got some huge hits off an amazing closer on their side. It’s just baseball. It’s just postseason. 

“It’s something I’m not used to, but it’s something I’ll definitely bounce back from.” 

It marked the second straight game in which Weaver had given up a home run — Jose Ramirez took him deep for a meaningless solo shot in the ninth inning of Game 2 — after allowing two home runs in his prior 28 games. 

The sudden damage against Weaver raised questions as to whether the heavy workload was beginning to catch up with him.

Manager Aaron Boone had asked Weaver to record more than three outs in four of those seven appearances. 

Thursday marked Weaver’s third time pitching in a span of four days, something he only did once in the regular season (in August).

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He never had to pitch four times in five days. 

“I mean, playoffs,” Boone said when asked if Weaver was showing signs of tiring given his workload. “I thought overall he was pretty sharp. Credit to them for getting into a pitch. Yeah, it’s that time of year. You try and preserve as many bullets as you can, and I thought overall he threw the ball pretty well, and they got him right there.” 

The loquacious Weaver declined to take the bait when asked if he were running on fumes. 

“I won’t answer that as far as fumes,” he said. “I feel like you just come in every day, you prepare yourself to the best you can. After the game, recovery … making sure I’m getting the things done I need to. Get some good sleep and come back the next day. I’m not the biggest guy in the world, but we all got our things we gotta get through.

“It’s playoff baseball, adrenaline is high. So when you’re on the mound, you’re only feeling about executing and getting things done.” 

Weaver was more frustrated with himself for getting ahead 0-2 on Lane Thomas and not being able to put him away, giving up a double that preceded Noel’s blast — on a changeup that Weaver said slipped out of his hand. 

Though stunning home runs from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton off Emmanuel Clase gave Weaver a chance to lock down his fifth save of these playoffs Thursday, the Yankees could also be doing a better job of taking some of the load off Weaver (and Clay Holmes, who had also pitched in each of the first seven playoff games).

Because the offense had yet to break out or take advantage of all the traffic it had been generating, Boone had to use Weaver in every game — including for two non-save opportunities in a 4-2 loss to the Royals in the ALDS and a 6-2 win over the Guardians in Game 2 of the ALCS. 

Creating some more breathing room could allow Boone to use different relievers to close out a game, which he might be forced to do at some point regardless so he doesn’t run Weaver and Holmes into the ground. 

“The workload and everything, it is what it is,” Weaver said. “Everybody’s played the whole season and done their thing. So there’s never an excuse and it’s about doing your job.”