TORONTO -- Luke Weaver said after the Yankees’ 10-1 ALDS Game 1 loss on Saturday that he has been trying to clean up tells in his delivery, and that the effort to do so has caused him to overthink.

Now, after two consecutive postseason outings in which he has faced three batters without recording an out, Weaver wants to stop worrying about tipping and return to his old form.

That old form, of course, has proven elusive for Weaver all season. Aaron Boone managed him nimbly through the season, quietly moving Weaver to softer lanes against the bottom of opposing orders in order to restore his results and confidence.

When a pitcher openly muses about tipping, his confidence is clearly not at its peak. The Yankees brought this to Weaver’s attention about a month ago.

The question now is how many opportunities the team will give Weaver to get his mind right. A running internal debate/discussion in the organization has been whether Boone should prioritize Weaver over Fernando Cruz in his pecking order, or vice versa.

On Saturday, Weaver and Cruz both struggled, while Camilo Doval pitched two perfect innings. Doval is a former All-Star closer for the San Francisco Giants.

After the Yankees’ pen struggled in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Boston, I asked a high-up person in the organization what they could do to improve and adjust their pen on the fly. This is the aspect of their roster that stands most clearly between the Yanks and a championship. That person suggested using Doval in higher-leverage situations.

Boone said that he hoped Doval would be available in Game 2 despite pitching the two frames.

“That's kind of how he finished the season,” the manager added. “His last few were really good. I feel like he cleaned up some things within his setup and his delivery. Yeah, that was really efficient, really good, attacking the strike zone with, obviously, that stuff. Another encouraging one for Camilo."

What is Warren’s role?

The Yankees like Will Warren despite choosing Luis Gil over him to start Game 1. But what is Warren’s role in this postseason?

When Gil struggled in the second inning, Boone got the lefty Tim Hill up in the bullpen along with righty long man Paul Blackburn. Why not Warren behind Gil?

“If I was going to go early to the pen, I wanted to get a situation where I had Hill where he was going to get most of the lefties without pinch-hitting early in the game,” Boone explained. “And then at some point, depending on leverage of the game, Will comes into play.”

My understanding is that the Yankees would use Warren for high-leverage outs but more likely length -- just not in a spot like the one in which Boone called for Hill, where several lefties were due up.

Because of off days, Max Fried will be able to start Game 2 and a potential Game 5 on full rest.

On that Judge at-bat

Any time Aaron Judge bats in a big spot in the postseason, the referendum begins on what the result will mean for his October reputation and legacy. Given his numbers, those talking points are mostly fair.

But a closer look at Judge’s bases-loaded, no outs strikeout against Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning shows how that at-bat would have challenged just about anyone.

Asked if he was “overanxious,” Judge said, “I wouldn’t say overanxious, if you saw the whole at-bat. But in the end, I didn't get the job done.”

Here’s what he meant by seeing the whole at-bat: Gausman’s first pitch was a 97 mph fastball low and away for a strike. A pitcher’s pitch. Judge went on to take a few close ones and foul off a few tough ones.

The eighth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 splitter that appeared headed to the same area as the first-pitch fastball. That Pitching Ninja guy on Twitter shows this kind of tunneling. I’m trying to do it verbally here, which is not as illustrative. But stay with me.

After the ball left Gausman’s hand, Judge had the usual millisecond to decide if it was going to be in the zone, like the fastball. He considered the spin and path of the ball, then fired. But it was a nasty splitter, diving away for what would have been ball four.

Basically, when Gausman executes that pitch, as he did here, the batter has very little chance. If it looks like a strike to Aaron “Best Hitter on Earth” Judge, imagine how the rest of the league would have flailed at it.

Why Boone didn’t pinch-hit for Rice

Ben Rice struggled in Game 3 of the Wild Card series against lefty Connelly Early’s breaking ball, and did the same in his first two at-bats Saturday against Gausman’s splitter. Gausman is a righty, but that pitch kills lefties.

During the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally, Bellinger followed Judge’s strikeout with a bases-loaded walk, making it a 2-1 game. Then Rice stepped to the plate. Some in the industry wondered why Boone didn’t pinch-hit Paul Goldschmidt, who hits soft stuff well and is 10-for-22 lifetime versus Gausman.

The answer is simple and reasonable: righty reliever Louis Varland was ready in the bullpen. Swapping in Goldschmidt would have simply given Toronto manager John Schneider a matchup he wanted. Varland came in to strike out Giancarlo Stanton.

It’s fair to wonder why the Yankees did not start Goldschmidt, given that history.

It’s not just Aaron Judge’s fault, of course. There were Yankee failures Saturday across multiple departments in the opener of the AL Division Series, from starting pitching to the bullpen to a lineup that didn’t deliver in yet another loss in Toronto.

But the lingering moment, at least for Yankees fans smarting over an enormous chance missed in a game that would devolve into a laugher, might come from the stressful sixth inning with Judge at the plate. The bases were loaded, nobody out, in a still-taut game. The Yanks were down by two runs.

Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays starter, was rolling, but Judge is a longtime nemesis – the Yankee star owned a 1.283 OPS against Gausman entering Saturday. His lifetime six homers off Gausman are the most he’s slugged off a single pitcher. It was, as Gausman would put it later, "Mano y mano.”

Mano Gausman won. He got Judge to swing at a low splitter – obviously a ball – on a 3-2 pitch, capping an eight-pitch battle with a crucial K. Gausman walked in a run, but the Jays ultimately escaped the inning, allowing just that one run. Reliever Louis Varland struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the threat and Toronto went on to a 10-1 victory.

“In the end, you know, I didn’t get the job done,” Judge told reporters in Toronto. “That’s what it comes down to.”

And so the October scrutiny will continue for Judge. He’s clearly one of the greatest hitters of this, or any, era. In the postseason, it’s too much to ask for anyone to reproduce the outsized numbers he’s stacked up during the regular season. But he’s a career .217 hitter this time of year after going 2-for-4 Saturday. (He’s actually having a strong postseason so far, batting .400).

But, fair or unfair, he probably needs to wreck a series himself to get full credit from pinstriped fans. A World Series wouldn’t hurt, either, obviously.

But all that’s not just on him, just like the blame for the loss in the Division Series isn’t solely his to own. After Judge, the Yankees had Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton coming to the plate. Plenty of thump there, too, but Gausman and Varland wriggled (mostly) free.

Overall, the Yankees were outhit, 14-6, and were just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Let’s go back to the Yanks’ big chance. Gausman’s splitter was particularly dangerous against the aggressive Yankees and, as the at-bat against Judge went on, it was easy to think he’d use it as his out pitch. But he set it up beautifully by first throwing a 97 mile-per-hour four-seamer inside to Judge, which Judge fouled off. Then Gausman threw an 86-mph splitter outside that dipped below the strike zone. Judge swung and missed.

“I kind of threw some pitches that I got away with, to be honest, early in the at-bat,” Gausman said in the interview room. “But I thought the pitch before really set up the split down and away. In that moment, to be honest, I'm fine walking him. He can blow that game right open with one swing. So kind of knowing that, the whole at-bat I was trying to go down and away with the split, left a couple kind of too good.

“But that was a good pitch. I thought the pitch before definitely set it up.”

“That’s a huge, huge strikeout of a guy who’s going to be the MVP of the league, probably,” Toronto manager John Schneider added. “You’re kind of going to feed on the emotion a little bit, too, to be honest with you. But that’s the last thing you want to see (Judge at the plate in that situation).”

Judge lamented that he had swung at ball four. “You guys all saw it,” he told reporters.

There’s no question the game changes if the Yankees come away with more than one run there. Maybe their bullpen usage changes and Luke Weaver, who has let all six batters he’s faced reach base this postseason, does not get the ball. Yankees relievers allowed eight runs in 5.1 innings in total, though, so it wasn’t just Weaver. And starter Luis Gil was unimpressive, too.

Clearly, Judge and his teammates must forget Saturday’s dud. One way to do that is to start dreaming about how the pitching lines up for them going forward. Max Fried starts Game 2 on Sunday – he was 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankee loss this year – and he’ll be followed by Carlos Rodón in Game 3 and then Cam Schlittler, the rookie sensation who overwhelmed the Red Sox in the clincher of the Wild Card series, in Game 4.

Judge will continue to get chances. It’s probably worth believing in him, regardless of Octobers past. Maybe it’s worth continuing to believe in the Yankees, too, despite the way Saturday sagged.

Judge does. “I like our chances,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting those opportunities and we’re going to come through when we need to.”

Yankees reliever Luke Weaver is having a postseason to forget.

After allowing two runs without recording an out in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the Red Sox, the right-hander had a repeat performance against Toronto on Saturday in the first game of the American League Division Series.

With the Blue Jays up just 2-1 in the seventh, Weaver was called upon to keep Toronto scoreless as he started the inning. Daulton Varsho worked a five-pitch walk before Anthony Santander lined a single to right field, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Andres Gimenez then singled through the right side of a drawn-in infield to score one. 

After three batters, that was it for Weaver. Fernando Cruz would allow two of Weaver's runners to score, closing the book on the 32-year-old's night. Weaver allowed three runs on two hits and one walk, without recording an out, again.

"Not a stuff issue," manager Aaron Boone said of Weaver after the loss. "Obviously, command is usually a strength for Weave. Losing the first guy in four pitches there and then looked like a couple of change-ups that just kind of were flat and up and over the plate that Santander got and Giménez with the drawn-in infield. It can click like that, because the stuff is there. We've just got to get him locked in with his delivery."

Weaver's delivery and mechanics became a point of discussion after Saturday's 10-1 loss, and all of it came from Weaver himself.

"The results haven’t been good. There’s been a lot of internal factors. I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s been adjustments that I’ve had to make based on things people are seeing. It just hasn’t lined up," Weaver explained after the game. "It’s pretty late in the adjustment period. It’s just not lining up out there. I don’t feel like myself. I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. There are just some factors that are building up and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to."

"There's been a lot of internal factors. I don't want to get too crazy into it, but there's been adjustments I've have to make based off of things that people are seeing. It just hasn't really lined up. It's been pretty late in the adjustment period and it's just not lining up… pic.twitter.com/zI8RhEeLv4

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 4, 2025

Weaver became the Yankees'  most reliable reliever last season, allowing him to overtake Clay Holmes as the team's closer through their playoff run a year ago. 

However, with the addition of Devin Williams in the offseason and then David Bednar at the trade deadline, Weaver's role has been more of a bridge to the ninth inning. This season, he's pitched to a 3.62 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP, up from last year, but a lot of that has come of late. He pitched to a 9.64 ERA in 12 appearances in September, buoyed by a couple of blowup outings earlier in the month, but was still solid heading into the postseason. 

In his final six appearances (5.2 IP), Weaver allowed just one hit and one walk. However, that hasn't translated to the playoffs as of yet.

Despite trying to combat pitch tipping, Weaver says he feels close and is competitive. He points to the soft contact teams have gotten off of him in his two postseason outings so far, but the adjustments he's making aren't taking, and his patented changeup is staying up in the zone. For Weaver, who is a free agent after this season, the adjustments have "become a lot," and he is going to go back to what he was doing before.

"Ultimately, I’m at a point where I’m just full send and none of that’s going to matter anymore," he said. "I’m going to be what I think is best for me and attack and what I need to do."

He later added, "Baseball seems overwhelming at the moment when the results aren’t on your side. I don’t walk away from these outings being too hard on myself. Ultimately, I’m really close. I’m not giving up balls out of the yard or hard contact. It comes down to pitch selection, execution and relying on our guys on the field to make plays."

Weaver was pressed with follow-ups about the perceived tipping but he didn't want to go too deep on it, but wanted to make his feelings known.

"I just got to be tidy, clean, go out there and give myself the best chance," he said. "Ultimately, too, at the same time, you have to keep your brain clean; the moments already big, you don’t need more things stacking on your plate."

Despite the tough outings, Weaver's teammates remain confident that the reliever can still get it done.

"Things haven't gone his way, but everybody in this room has confidence in him to go out there and do his job," Aaron Judge said of Weaver. "He's been a special piece of this team since he came over here."

And Weaver has a history the Yankees can lean on. In 12 appearances last October, Weaver was great, pitching to a 1.76 ERA and converting four saves along the way. 

But while it's unknown when his next postseason appearance will be this year, Weaver remains confident in his stuff. And that given an opportunity, he will continue to compete for his teammates.

"I’m not going to allow two outings to dictate my time here. You can certainly say what you like, but ultimately, I feel confident in our team, I feel confident in myself," he said. "It’s not like I’m throwing 93 [mph], I’m throwing 97, it’s coming out really good. I’ll make the adjustments, I’ll do it. I’ll leave everything out on the field. It won’t be a matter of trying, a matter of letting myself roll over. I’ll compete with anyone in this entire world or I’ll die trying."

The Yankees hope to avoid a 0-2 deficit when they play the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.

Luis Gil was terrific for the Yankees down the stretch. 

The right-hander threw well enough that he earned himself the ALDS Game 1 start. 

Things, however, did not quite go as planned on Saturday afternoon.

Gil was knocked out of the game by the high-powered Blue Jays over just 2.2 innings of work, allowing two runs on four hits (two homers) in what was his shortest outing of the season. 

He gave up a two-out solo shot to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the bottom of the first, and then Alejandro Kirk made him pay for another mistake with a no-doubt solo blast of his own leading off the second. 

The righty came back out for the bottom of the third, but was pulled after giving up a two-out single to Guerrero. 

“They were hunting the top of the zone and put some good swings on him,” Aaron Boone said. “You live with the two solo shots, we were still in the game there and he did enough, we felt like we could piece it together from there.”

As things played out, though, the Yanks were unable to piece this one together. 

The offense wasted a golden opportunity with Toronto’s Kevin Gausman on the ropes in the sixth, as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton struck out with the bases loaded in a close ballgame.

The Jays' offense was sure to make them pay for that an inning later, as they jumped all over the struggling Luke Weaver to score four more times in the seventh, officially putting this one away and securing the series advantage. 

“Not the result we wanted,” Gil said through an interpreter. “You want to execute your pitches against this lineup, but at the same time they’re big-league hitters, they’re there to swing the bat and they were able to do that tonight -- but I have full confidence in my teammates and I know we’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”