After two straight poor outings led to his demotion from the closer role, Yankees reliever Devin Williams looked like his usual dominant self during Monday night’s series opener in Baltimore against the Orioles.
The right-hander retired Baltimore’s Ryan Mountcastle, Heston Kjerstad, and Ramon Urias in order in the bottom of the eighth inning to keep the Yankees’ deficit at 4-3, although it was a hole they could not climb out of.
Regardless, Williams looked “really good” to manager Aaron Boone, who watched as the reliever threw an efficient 14 pitches in the inning.
He struck out Mouncastle swinging on a 1-2 changeup after pumping three straight fastballs to get ahead in the count. That same changeup got Kjerstad to grond out to second. Urias popped out to first on the second fastball he saw.
“I just liked his look out there,” Boone said. “He was aggressive, just in the strike zone, aggressive with his fastball. I thought every changeup he threw — pretty good angle from it over there at my vantage point in the dugout — I liked the depth on the pitch. But also establishing his fastball in the strike zone with it.”
For Boone, the outing was a major “step in the right direction” for Williams, who struggled mightily in his last two appearances. He gave up four runs (three earned) on three hits and a walk on April 19 against the Tampa Bay Rays. He then blew a save on Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which he yielded three runs on two hits.
“It was good to see him get out there and have 1-2-3,” Boone said. “Thought he had some real good conviction with every pitch he threw… Hopefully, it’s just little things here that get your mojo [back] and remind you how darn good you are at this game.”
He will still need to do some heavy lifting to get back into his closer’s role. After all, he has a 10.00 ERA in nine innings pitched during his first 11 outings with the Yankees.
