Do you see it and not want to say it?
Because it feels like baseball sacrilege to even think it, much less express it. So careful in the wording. The last thing you want to do is compare someone to Beethoven or Michael Jordan based on a small sample size.
So what is the proper language to conjure the greatest at something over a small period? You want to talk about al-Mo-st seeing a bit of genius without being Mo-cked. You don’t want to just take a Mo-rsel in time and overstate anything. You want to avoid getting caught up in the Mo-ment.
Thus, here is the comfort zone — have you noticed that Luke Weaver is kind of on a Mariano Rivera run? Please, please, please note the use of the word “run.” Rivera didn’t have a run. He had two decades of brilliance — the greatest reliever ever in the regular season and just perhaps the best postseason pitcher ever and the only unani-Mo-us electee to the Hall of Fame.
Thus, one Mo-nth has traces of Rivera, but not the full Mo-nty. But since unofficially officially becoming the closer on Sept. 6, hasn’t Weaver fit that Mo-de? Can’t you see a little “Mo” in what Weaver’s doing?
You know the 6-foot-2 lean hyper-athletic righty failed former starter finding the role of a lifetime. The Mo-wing down of lineups with economy and lack of drama. The uber-strike throwing. The re-Mo-val of walks and homers and good luck to the opponent getting three singles before three outs to score a run. The Mo-vement on the pitches to avoid the barrel of the bat. The dominance against lefties. The endurance to hold up well over Mo-re than one inning. The controlled e-Mo-tion that allows for the raising of a game amid October stress.
“It is a high level of premium strike throwing,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake agreed when asked about the Rivera-esque comp. “It is a high level of awareness where to use his fastball to stay off the sweet spots of the barrel [of the bat].”
It is allowing Weaver to do for Aaron Boone, what Rivera once did for Joe Torre and Joe Girardi — change the math of the game. Rivera’s managers played the game backward. It was a 24- and often at this time of year a 21-out game for the other team because Rivera had anywhere from the final three to six outs. The opposition knew it. Pinch hitters got into the game earlier because why wait for the futility against Rivera? Desperation rose earlier for the opposition. They knew Rivera was out there. And a Yankee manager could line up everyone else just so.
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Weaver is not to that Mo-untaintop. The Division Series after all featured a Royal team that Mo-stly hits singles and doesn’t walk or strikeout much. In the Yankees’ three-games-to-one triumph, Kansas City collected six extra-base hits and seven walks and hit .237. The entirety of the Yankee bullpen was superb (one unearned run in 15 ²/₃ innings), with the setup work of Tommy Kahnle and a revived Clay Holmes standing out.
But Weaver was Mo-re than that. He used his fastball/changeup (mixed in cutter) repertoire to face 15 Royals, allow two singles, strike out five, not only author zero walks, but went to three balls on just one. Like Holmes, he appeared in all four games and saved all three victories. He got Mo-re than three outs twice. Lefties were hitless in five at-bats with two whiffs.
And this has been ongoing since Boone Mo-dified his pen. Since Holmes’ de-Mo-tion from closer and, thus, Weaver’s pro-Mo-tion on Sept. 6, he’s been Mo-ney. In that period, the Division Series included, Weaver has thrown 15 ¹/₃ innings with no earned runs, three walks and 29 strikeouts — or 52.7 percent of those he has faced. Lefties are 2-for-23 against him — both singles. And the entire bullpen — like it once did with Rivera — has fallen comfortably in line since then with a 1.68 ERA, .177 opponent batting average and just six of 29 inherited runners scoring.
“There’s always some of that confidence and Mo-mentum that is felt and passed along,” Holmes said of the group.
Again, this was the Royals in the playoffs and a very short span since Sept. 6. Relievers — even the best — are volatile. It was hard to be Mo-re dominant than Devin Williams in dispatching the Mets in a 1-2-3 ninth in wild-card Game 2, and the next night the brilliant Brewers closer gave up the decisive ninth-inning homer to Pete Alonso.
Emmanuel Clase is probably the best reliever in the sport, allowing five earned runs in 74 ¹/₃ all regular season. Then the Guardians righty gave up four earned runs between his outings in Division Series Games 2 and 4 vs. the Tigers.
Even Rivera gave up huge runs on occasion this time of year. But largely, the comfort he brought with his genius was a key to five Yankees championships. Mo-re and Mo-re, the Yankees are experiencing this Rivera-esque tenor with Weaver. You are seeing Mo in him while getting Mo out of him.
If he can keep it going, it will not be the total Rivera, but it would be Mo-mentous.
