NEW YORK – Prior to Saturday action against the Giants, Yankees closer Devin Williams had a tough time getting outs, allowing four runs in three innings. He saved only one game during that period and that came during the home opener which came against his former team, the Brewers, on March 27.
But Yankees manager Aaron Boone insisted that it was too early to be concerned about their ninth-inning man.
In fact, Boone put Williams in a non-save situation during New York’s 8-4 victory over the Giants on Saturday evening. After allowing a leadoff walk to Mike Yastrzemski and a double to Willy Adames to put runners on second and third, Williams shut down San Francisco by striking out Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman before inducing Heliot Ramos to ground out to second base Jazz Chisholm Jr. to end the game.
“It’s been a little bit of a rough start, obviously, and he goes walk, hit right off the bat and doesn’t crumble,” Boone said. “He just goes, ‘OK, I’m really good at this [and] make my pitches.’ Not only does he get the next three guys out, but he leaves the runners stranded with some good execution.”
Boone believes Williams’ outing on Saturday is the start of the latter showing once again that he is one of the best closers in the Major Leagues.
“We are going to look up, eventually, and he is going to be rolling. He is going to be one of the game’s great closers,” Boone said. “We are going to see [it] this year. Hopefully, [this outing] can have a domino effect into … just getting him more and more settled as we go, more into the routine, more into the flow of the season. Whether that happened today, next time or whatever, I’m confident that will happen over the long haul.”
