{"id":66461,"date":"2025-08-08T01:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/66461\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T01:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:30:12","slug":"why-aaron-boone-turned-back-to-and-stuck-with-devin-williams-in-yankees-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/66461\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Aaron Boone turned back to \u2014 and stuck with \u2014 Devin Williams in Yankees decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A scoreless game did not allow Aaron Boone to hide Devin Williams on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Just one day after yet another crushing blown save by Williams<\/a>, Boone needed someone to pitch the eighth inning of a scoreless game against the Rangers.<\/p>\n

Some managers may have avoided a struggling reliever, who seemingly had lost his closing job earlier in the day<\/a>, yet Boone gave Williams the chance to right the ship in a controversial move that many questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to piece it together,\u201d Boone said. \u201cOnce Will (Warren) goes five, we\u2019re set up there. Liked him in that middle with the handful of those righties and obviously just couldn\u2019t finish it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone\u2019s decision, like most he\u2019s made these days, backfired with Williams allowing two runs to send the Yankees to a fifth straight loss in their 2-0 setback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Devin Williams after another rough night Tuesday. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Williams is now 3-4 with a ghastly 5.44 ERA and has allowed runs in six of eight appearances in the second half, including four straight, to post a 9.39 ERA in this stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I don\u2019t really know what to say at this point,\u201d Williams said. \u201cContinue to work, keep trying to execute and help the team any way that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone\u2019s Devin Williams decisions have backfired lately. AP<\/p>\n

One of the beauties of baseball for relievers is the ability to get back on the proverbial horse the day after a rough outing like Williams had Monday, when he allowed a game-tying ninth-inning homer to Joc Pederson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Managers sometimes, though, will shy away from using a struggling pitcher if they can.<\/p>\n

Tuesday forced Boone into a tough call after Warren labored through five innings, and he used Camilo Doval and Luke Weaver in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively.<\/p>\n

The Rangers had two righties to start the eighth and three of the first four batters, which made Boone lean toward Williams rather than lefty Tim Hill.<\/p>\n

It also appeared Boone wanted a softer spot to reintroduce Mark Leiter Jr. after an injured list stint, while David Bednar seemingly was being held for a save opportunity.<\/p>\n

Williams retired Marcus Semien before allowing a double to Adolis Garcia that Jasson Dominguez got his glove on but could not corral.<\/p>\n

Things went south when Williams\u2019 control issues popped up, with the righty walking lefty Pederson and then righty Wyatt Langford to load the bases.<\/p>\n

Boone had his chance to remove Williams at this point, with Bednar and Leiter warming, but in a polarizing moment, he stuck with his struggling reliever.<\/p>\n

The manager added that he didn\u2019t consider Hill since he figured the Rangers could counter by pinch-hitting a righty.<\/p>\n

Aaron Boone takes the ball from Devin Williams on Tuesday. Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to maybe go with Bednar in a four-out situation, but just kind of shorten the game a little bit,\u201d Boone said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot left down there once \u2014 and Leiter being in a situation where he obviously hasn\u2019t pitched in a while, so if I could get it to a four-out scenario, I was going to do it. I thought Devin could still get some swing and miss there, but obviously didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boone went 0-for-2 in Williams decisions, when Rowdy Tellez won a 10-pitch at-bat with a 71-mph soft single into center to plate a pair of runs.<\/p>\n

Williams reacted the moment the ball left the bat, seemingly knowing the runs would score and continue his nightmarish season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did a great job. Battling me, he was fouling off everything,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe won today. I\u2019ll try to get him the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a near-zero percent chance \u2014 barring an emergency \u2014 that Williams will pitch Wednesday in the series finale amid this stretch, and it\u2019s fair to wonder in what role he will be used in his next outing.<\/p>\n

With Bednar, Doval and Weaver available, and Hill to take care of lefties, Boone can demote Williams to low-leverage innings if needed.<\/p>\n

Making it all the more confounding is that Boone can\u2019t pinpoint why Williams is having the worst year of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s in the middle here where he\u2019s been really good and lately had some struggles obviously,\u201d Boone said. \u201cWe got to hopefully help him turn the corner and get part of the group that we can still be very good down there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A scoreless game did not allow Aaron Boone to hide Devin Williams on Tuesday night. Just one day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1992,39466,4715,363,369,99,2330],"class_list":["post-66461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-boone","tag-david-bednar","tag-devin-williams","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}