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CLEVELAND — Tommy Kahnle just keeps pressing the same button, over and over and over again.
The right-hander closed out Game 4 of the ALCS for the Yankees on Friday night at Progressive Field, in an 8-6 win that gave the Yanks a 3-1 series lead and put them on the doorstep of the World Series. But Kahnle’s first postseason save since 2017 isn’t even the most surprising part … it’s how Kahnle did it.
Kahnle threw 18 pitches, all changeups. This comes just one day after he threw 26 pitches, all changeups, in Game 3. If we reach back to the final batter he faced in Game 2 at Yankee Stadium, Kahnle has thrown 48 consecutive changeups. He’s developed into the ultimate changeup pitcher in recent years, throwing it three-quarters of the time, but this recent run from the veteran is taking it to a level that’s extreme even for him.
Back in 2017, when Kahnle closed out Game 4 of the ALDS against Cleveland, he was a fireballer, flirting with triple digits. This slow, steady rebrand has been mental as much as physical, and the two versions of Kahnle couldn’t look more different.
“I’ve tried to keep my focus more,” Kahnle said. “In years past, I was a bit young and I might have lost that focus from pitch to pitch sometimes. I want to try to stay locked in each pitch and execute. I feel like before, when I was young, I was more of a thrower. I threw hard. Now that I don’t throw as hard, I need to hit my spots a little bit better and command my changeup.”
Kahnle typically lives in the seventh and eighth innings for the Yankees, but with Clay Holmes pitching the seventh before handing things off to Mark Leiter Jr. — the night’s other surprise casting from Yankees manager Aaron Boone — Kahnle got the last call instead of Luke Weaver.
Weaver had already pitched in all seven of the Yankees’ games this postseason, and he wasn’t in the plans for this one.
“I was staying away from Luke,” Boone said after the win. “Then just the way the game unfolded, if it got long for Tommy — just because [of how] much he’s pitched, too — I was like, ‘You know what, let’s use Luke for one out if we have to.’ I almost brought him in there for [Brayan] Rocchio, but I felt like Tommy had one more in him. So that was going to be his last hitter, and I was going to go to Weave if I had to with [Steven] Kwan.”
The relationship between relievers and a manager is so important. There’s trust involved, loyalty at play.
Much like Leiter, who finished out the seventh and handled the eighth, Kahnle praised Boone for trusting him in a spot that didn’t feel all that likely coming into the night.
“It shows how he values me,” Kahnle said. “He’s always had my back. I feel like he’s always been a big proponent of me. It’s special that he has the confidence in me to go out there and get the last three outs.”
Getting through the night without using Weaver is a win within a win for the Yankees. Their Game 5 starter, Carlos Rodón, might need to eat a big breakfast, but at least New York will have its closer relatively fresh. With the exception of Marcus Stroman, who has been unused this postseason as the long man, October has already been a grind for this bullpen.
But having a 10-year veteran in Kahnle to turn to is a luxury when you can pick the right spot. Kahnle allowed two baserunners, but all Yankees fans will remember is the zero.
“That was huge for Tommy. Huge for us, huge for everybody,” said catcher Austin Wells. “For him to get those outs and for us to not have to use any more pitchers, that was huge. He’s been doing that all year for us. That was really special.”
It would be a lot to ask to have Kahnle go three consecutive days after throwing 26 and 18 pitches over the past two games, but with the Yankees one win away from a trip to their first World Series since 2009, everything has to be on the table for Boone, unconventional options included.
Besides, Kahnle has spent the last 48 pitches setting up a heater.