Will Warren strengthens his Yankees playoff case after latest strong outing
A few weeks ago, Will Warren seemed like a fine No.5 starter for a Yankees team to which he could provide real value from the end of March through September.But with just about every outing these days, he is looking more and more like a playoff pitcher for a club that could use another.
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.At a time of the season when arms typically tire, Warren is finding another gear that he displayed again in Wednesday’s 6-1 victory over the Rockies in The Bronx.For six strong, one-run innings, Warren was in control during a fifth straight outing in which he did not let up more than two earned runs.
Over his past three appearances — two starts and 2 ¹/₃ hitless, scoreless innings in relief of a building-up Max Fried on Friday in San Diego — he has surrendered two earned runs in 15 ¹/₃ innings, shrinking his ERA from 4.39 to 4.05.Barring injury, Warren probably cannot pitch himself into a postseason start, but he seems to be establishing that he will play a role in some way for a club that is auditioning many for bullpen spots.“He can serve a lot of roles potentially [in October],” manager Aaron Boone said of a righty who might have been previously seen as an innings-eater and now may be showing something more.“He’s been incredibly durable.
But he’s got weapons.”For the Yankees, the stuff is as encouraging as the results.Warren does not have the velocity of Cam Schlittler or the overwhelming nastiness of Gerrit Cole or the arsenal of Fried or the slider of Carlos Rodón.But he does have a healthy mix of pitches with command and velocity increasing and a changeup that is correspondingly playing up.Yet again his velocity escalated, his four-seamer nearly a full tick up from his season average and buzzing in at 94.6 mph.
He has thrown 35 pitches all season of at least 96 mph; eight of those came Wednesday, when he struck...