Luke Weaver let out `ferocious jungle cat' in new role as Yankees closer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Converted into the New York Yankees closer, Luke Weaver let out his animal instinct.

“It’s just like the ferocious jungle cat just comes out me,” he said during the clubhouse celebration after Thursday night’s AL Division Series clincher in Kansas City, speaking on the Yes Network.

“You just feed into the energy,” he said. “I think you tell yourself you’ve got to be relentless, you got to be convicted. I don’t want to mess around and sleep at night be like: I didn’t give my all. I was scared or I was timid. Just go right after them and keep at it.”

New York opens the AL Championship Series at home against Cleveland or Detroit on Monday night, seeking to reach the World Series for the first time since winning its 27th title in 2009.

Yankees relievers didn’t allow an earned run in 15 2/3 innings against the Royals. It was the third-most innings without an earned run in a postseason series after 18 1/3 by Minnesota against Toronto in the 1991 ALCS and 17 by the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Chicago Cubs in the 2017 NLCS.

Weaver saved all three wins against the Royals, striking out five in 4 1/3 innings while allowing two hits. He is seven for seven in save chances since replacing Clay Holmes as closer on Sept. 6 and has struck out 29 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 supplanting Aroldis Chapman early in 2022 season, but the two-time All-Star blew 13 of 43 save chances, tying the Yankees record shared by Goose Gossage and Dave Righetti.

Dropped to 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 how 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.”

Holmes said it wasn’t hard to accept his new role.

“Things didn’t go perfect,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I still can’t get outs and be a really good pitcher. ... No matter what role it is, I’ll be a part of it and I want to help my teammates. And I think just to have that mindset, it’s kind of helped me be resilient.”

Right-handers Tommy Kahnle, Jake Cousins and Ian Hamilton also pitched in relief along with left-handers Tim Hill and Tim Mayza.

“It’s been a conversation all year long about what this is going to look like, and I feel like it’s trending in the right direction in the second half, the last month in particular,” pitching coach Matt Blake said ahead of the series against the Royals. “We’ve got really five-to-six high-leverage options that can kind of help us navigate the back end of the game maybe a little bit differently than we have in the past.”