Clay Holmes rode a dominant sinker to his first All-Star Game selection last year.
That pitch has returned to form over the last month and a half, but the Yankees reliever has also unlocked another weapon: his slider.
The combination has allowed Holmes to post a 0.44 ERA over his last 20 games.
While Holmes’ sinker has been his bread and butter — and continues to be this season, holding opponents to a .231 batting average and .295 slugging percentage — he has increased the usage of his gyro slider while still mixing in a bigger sweeper.
Against the gyro slider, which has more vertical movement than the sweeper, opponents are batting just .130 with a .130 slugging percentage.
Holmes said he tried to tinker with the grip of the gyro slider this offseason in an attempt to make it more like a cutter and to throw it harder.
But it did not feel natural, so he scrapped it and went back to the gyro slider he had been using, which began to feel more comfortable.
“The [velocity] is still there — it’s still 88-89ish [mph], but it seems to have a lot more depth, which I’ve just kind of taken and ran with,” Holmes said Wednesday before the Yankees’ 4-2 win over the Mariners in which he did not pitch.
“It’s been pretty good to lefties and even to righties. I can still throw that pitch to righties and it shows them two different sliders. For me, it just kind of went with comfort and then I started to get a little more depth. I think it just comes a little more naturally to me.”
As encouraged as the Yankees felt watching Carlos Rodon’s first rehab start on Tuesday night, the news was just as positive the day after.
“I’m happy the way I feel today,” Rodon said Wednesday.
Rodon, who threw 42 pitches across three innings Tuesday for Double-A Somerset, is scheduled to make another start on Sunday with Somerset.
The left-hander will have at least one more after that as the Yankees build his workload up carefully before he could potentially return to the big league rotation in the first week of July.
Rodon said his fastball velocity sat between 91-95 mph on Tuesday, and manager Aaron Boone added that it averaged 92.5 mph.
The pitch averaged 95.5 mph last season, but the Yankees believe Rodon is on the right track in building his velocity back up.
“I thought he had good life on his heater, even though it’s still not huge velocity,” Boone said. “But that’s kind of his calling card, that ‘fffft’ through the zone. He looked free and easy to me. He looked comfortable.”
Gleyber Torres was doubled off first base on Anthony Rizzo’s flyout to right field with one out in the fifth inning.
Boone said that Torres thought the ball was going to drop.
Mariners right fielder Teoscar Hernandez had to run a long way to track it down near the foul line before he easily tossed to first for the double play.
Giancarlo Stanton was out of the lineup Wednesday, but Boone said he was fine physically and could make his first start in the outfield on Thursday in the series finale against the Mariners.
In 13 games since coming off the IL for a strained hamstring — with semi-regular days off mixed in to build him back cautiously, in addition to team days off — Stanton was batting 5-for-45 (.111) with a .482 OPS.
“I think he’s going through one of those stretches he’s working through where it’s a little bit of a struggle for him to get that good timing, get his rhythm at the plate,” Boone said. “It’s one of those things you just want to ride out. … He’ll get through it. We’ll look up soon and, ‘Here we go.’ Because physically he’s in a good spot.”
Hal Steinbrenner, during a Wednesday appearance on ESPN Radio’s “The Michael Kay Show,” said hitting coach Dillon Lawson’s job was not in danger despite the Yankees’ recent offensive woes.
“Nobody’s on the hot seat right now,” Steinbrenner said. “Let’s get through the season. There’s no way that Stanton and [Anthony] Rizzo aren’t going to start hitting, and the others as well, I’m sure. … I think we’re going to be fine. People can call me delusional for saying that, but these guys are just too good.”