If their Game 2 loss in Houston proved anything, it’s that the Yankees have completely embraced erasing traditional pitching roles.
From pulling James Paxton with one out in the third despite the left-hander having allowed just one run, to putting CC Sabathia into a tie game in the 10th inning and then J.A. Happ coming in later in the frame, Aaron Boone has shown a willingness to get creative during the ALCS — and that isn’t expected to change.
Happ said he’d be ready to pitch out of the pen again in Tuesday’s Game 3 in The Bronx, and Boone added during a press conference Monday that he expected the left-hander to be “a big part of Game 4.”
“With any of these games, I think anything is possible and certainly comes into play,’’ Boone said.
And he showed that in going to Sabathia, Happ and even Jonathan Loaisiga on Sunday.
Sabathia appeared to come out of his one batter appearance fine Sunday night and Happ indicated he’d be able to pitch whenever necessary — as did Paxton , who threw 51 pitches.
“I’m just trying to be ready,’’ Happ said. “I was ready [Sunday] and I’ll be ready again for Game 3.’’
They got six brilliant innings out of Masahiro Tanaka in Game 1, and there figure to be few — if any — limitations on Luis Severino in Game 3, but if the series gets extended, expect more aggressive maneuvering from Boone.
“I think one thing I’ve talked about a lot is we have a lot of confidence in our 12 and 13 pitchers,’’ Boone said. “So it may look a little different than some other teams that are a little more traditional, although we can be traditional with obviously running out [Tanaka] and James and [Severino.] … But there’s a lot of ways to skin a cat, you know.’’
Severino hopes the strategy doesn’t apply to him.
“[It] bothered me a little bit because I’m a guy that wants to be out there,’’ Severino said of the game-wide trend of managers quickly going to their bullpens. “But I understand it. We had guys out there that can get out of any situation. And if Boone does something like that to me, I would talk to him, but I would understand it.”
Boone has liked the results through five postseason games, four of which were wins.
“The bottom line is so far in the postseason through five games, we’ve pitched really well, including in [Sunday] night’s game where we lost,’’ Boone said. “In the end, you’ve got to get 27 outs. [Sunday] night, we needed more than 27 outs and we feel like we have a pitching staff capable of doing that at a high level. I think so far we’ve shown that and expect us to continue.’’
