Mark Leiter Jr. knows what's expected of him after coming to the team in a deadline trade, and he knows many of his pitches are going to waste on the stands — he gave up just two homers in 39 games with the Cubs this season, and five in his first 16 games with the Yankees.
He sees the bright side: There are still a few weeks until the regular season ends and October begins.
“It's good we still have time,” Reiter said before the Yankees finish their series against the Royals in the Bronx on Wednesday.
Another positive is that Leiter's work hasn't disappeared.
Part of what made Leiter attractive to the Yankees was his ability to get batters to swing and miss, which would make him a good fit for a bullpen that struggled to strike out many batters for most of the season.
In his first six weeks in pinstripes, Leiter struck out 22 batters in 15 2/3 innings, an encouraging sign that his movement and velocity remained intact despite the many hard hits he took.
“Strikeouts are OK,” said Leiter, who entered the night with a 5.74 ERA since the trade. “I'm confident.”
He hasn't had any good results with his sinker in particular.
Of his five home runs with the Yankees, four came against the sinker, and opposing batters had a batting average of .652 against it during that time.
The Royals' Tommy Pham hit a home run off Leiter's sinker on Tuesday.
The Nationals' Jacob Young also hit a home run on August 26th.
“They hit my sinker, so that's what I'm thinking about,” said Reiter, who has one of the best pitches in baseball (the splitter) but has been beaten in the count a few times.
The Yankees have two talented left-handed pitchers in their bullpen, but the 33-year-old has been used a little differently with the Yankees.
The right-handed Leiter has been strong against left-handed batters throughout his career and was essentially the Cubs' left-handed specialist before the trade.
Before the trade, he had faced 54 right-handed batters and 98 left-handed batters this season.
After the trade, manager Aaron Boone had access to lefties Tim Hill and Tim Maza, as well as right-handed pitcher Tommy Kahnle, who excelled against lefties. Leiter faced 33 lefty batters and 46 righty batters, the latter of which dealt him heavy damage (.391 on-base percentage, .610 slugging percentage, 3 home runs).
The Yankees and writers are hoping that this period, when he was so dominant but turned nearly every mistake (and sometimes not) into a home run, can be forgotten in the final weeks and during the postseason.
“We're still getting to know him,” Boone said Tuesday after Leiter allowed two hits in 1 2/3 innings, one of which was a home run by Pham. “There was a lot of good stuff in every outing. There were some really strong outings. There were some outings where he got hurt by extra-base hits. Whether it was his fastball, he got on the back foot and his second-string pitcher didn't pitch well and he got caught out.
“We've got to keep working with him and get him in a position where he can be successful.”
