Luke Weaver embraced his wild side after becoming the New York Yankees’ closer.
“It’s just like the ferocious jungle cat just comes out of me,” he said during the clubhouse celebration after the AL Division Series win in Kansas City, speaking on the Yes Network.
“You just feed into the energy,” he explained. “I think you tell yourself you’ve got to be relentless, you got to be convicted. I don’t want to mess around and go to bed at night thinking: I didn’t give my all. I was scared or I was timid. Just go right after them and keep at it.”
New York starts the AL Championship Series at home against either Cleveland or Detroit on Monday night, aiming to reach the World Series for the first time since winning their 27th title in 2009.
Yankees relievers didn’t allow an earned run in 15 2/3 innings against the Royals. This performance ranks as the third-most innings without an earned run in a postseason series, following Minnesota’s 18 1/3 against Toronto in the 1991 ALCS and the Dodgers’ 17 against the Cubs in the 2017 NLCS.
Weaver saved all three wins against the Royals, striking out five in 4 1/3 innings while allowing just two hits. He is seven for seven in save chances since taking over for Clay Holmes as closer on September 6 and has struck out 29 out of 55 batters.
“We’re really happy to have him and keep calling him the unicorn,” Juan Soto said. “It’s just a cool way to call him.”
Holmes had been the closer since taking over from Aroldis Chapman early in the 2022 season but had blown 13 of 43 save chances, tying the Yankees record shared by Goose Gossage and Dave Righetti.
Now in a setup role, he pitched five scoreless innings against Kansas City, striking out three and walking just one.
“It’s treating every out like it’s the most important out in the game,” he said. “To me it simplifies things. You kind of take the whole situation — put a situation in your head like this lane or this batter or whatever.
It’s like you got to get every batter out and this out could be the most difficult out of the game.”
