Perhaps Texas represented a turning point.
On September 3, Clay Holmes suffered a brutal loss, allowing a game-ending grand slam to the Rangers' Wyatt Langford.
The next day, much of the Yankees' staff fell apart as Scott Efros, Ron Marinaccio and Phil Bickford cleaned up.
Holmes hasn't pitched a ninth inning since that series, but has otherwise been solid.
The Yankees have juggled a variety of pitchers and combinations of pitchers well, beginning with a shutout win against the Cubs on Sept. 6 that was most memorable for Luke Weaver's first career save.
Through the first 140 games of the season leading up to the series loss to the Rangers, the Yankees' relief pitchers were the eighth-least valuable in baseball, with a middling 3.89 ERA, according to FanGraphs.
In the 10 games since then, Yankees relief pitchers have posted a major league-best 1.16 ERA and are the second-most valuable pitchers according to Fangraphs.
“Now is a good time for everyone to come together,” said Ian Hamilton, who is back healthy at the right time.
The restructured team may have found its personnel (if not its exact personnel lineup) ahead of the most important part of the baseball season.
“We feel like a lot of our guys are pitching really well and have the ability to get the final outs,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday after his relievers pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings to seal the series win over the Red Sox. “We feel like this group … complements each other well. So we have some guys who are good at right-handed batting or left-handed batting or both, some guys who hit ground balls and some guys who hit fly balls. I think that mix, that complementation, will hopefully produce good results for everybody.”
The win went a long way for the Yankees and may have answered a season-long question about whether this team can be as strong as it has been the past few seasons.
The Yankees had 26 different relievers this season, with Caleb Ferguson, Victor Gonzalez, Dennis Santana and Michael Tonkin seeing significant time, but they have all been moved on.
The Yankees didn't just take Holmes out of the ninth inning, they found several relievers, including Weaver, who could pitch when it mattered most.
The closest thing the Yankees have to a closer, he's recorded two saves since the team was restructured, pitching 5 2/3 scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts.
“He's pitching great,” Boone said after Weaver faced seven batters on Friday, striking out five. “Obviously I'm with him in any situation.”
Same for Hamilton, who had a strong season last year before a shaky start to 2024.
He said he began experiencing shoulder pain and the pain was “all over the place,” but an MRI in mid-June revealed a strained latissimus dorsi muscle.
The 29-year-old returned rejuvenated.
His velocity was up and his “slam-bio” was unstoppable, allowing just one hit and no runs over 3 1/3 innings in September while striking out six.
The right-hander found himself in a pinch with one out and a runner on third base in the sixth inning on Sunday and struck out two on eight pitches.
“It's definitely taken me a while to get back to healthier mechanics and use my body a little better,” Hamilton said. “Right now I'm just trying to go as hard as I can.”
If Hamilton was last season's best unexpected find, Jake Cousins could be the 2024 version.
Cousins was essentially an afterthought the Yankees acquired from the White Sox in late March, and the right-hander brought with him one of the league's best sliders and a storied injury history.
A UCL injury ruined his 2022 season and a shoulder injury cost him significant time last year.
But when he was healthy with the Brewers from 2021-2023, he posted a 3.08 ERA in 51 games.
“I've always pitched well, I've just been hurt,” Cousins said recently. “I've walked a lot in the past, and this year I've been trying to walk less and be aggressive. So I think the biggest difference is I've gotten better at working through the counts.”
The right-hander has a 2.34 ERA in 34 games since being promoted in late June.
Add in the talented and reliable Tommy Kahnle and up-and-coming left-handers Tim Hill and Tim Mayza, and the Yankees may finally have a solid relief roster.
Mark Leiter Jr. was acquired at the deadline to be part of the solution for a bullpen that was struggling to strike out batters adequately.
Leiter has been an inconsistent pitcher — he's obviously not in great form, he's given up too many home runs — but the Yankees could still be just fine without him.
“We're having fun,” Boone said of the new bullpen. “We're happy with how focused our guys are and how well they're pitching.”
