Devin Williams’ dominant run comes with one Yankees worry

Devin Williams has fooled us before.

There was a stretch in May after he’d been bumped from the closer’s role in which he looked good and another in June when he was back pitching in the ninth with Luke Weaver on the injured list and performed up to expectations.

But those were followed by more nightmarish outings as the Yankees look to figure out the best way to use the right-hander, who was arguably the game’s best closer with the Brewers before his offseason trade to The Bronx.

Williams has returned to dominance lately and it could come at an ideal time. He pitched a perfect eighth inning in Sunday’s 7-2 win over Boston, as the Yankees snapped an eight-game losing streak against their rivals.

Williams entered the game with the Yankees up by three runs and, as Aaron Boone said, “the meat of the order” coming up.

The right-hander got Alex Bregman — who was typically hard on the Yankees all series — to ground out to shortstop and then struck out Roman Anthony and Trevor Story.

It came after Williams stiffened against the Rays to close out a game in the 10th inning Wednesday and retired the side in order in the eighth in Friday’s one-run loss.

Since another ugly five-appearance stretch ended two weeks ago, Williams has provided seven straight strong outings in a setup role, with David Bednar the closer.

Over 6 ¹/₃ innings, Williams hasn’t allowed an earned run and has given up just a pair of hits and a walk, while fanning 15.

“It’s really good to see him continue to pitch really well around a lot of things that have gone on this year,” Boone said. “It’s a credit to him and the quality of pitcher he is, but [also] the fortitude of just ‘keep going’ because, certainly, that’s what he’s capable of.”

The challenge this time is to not have any more of the disasters — or to at least limit their duration — that have marred his season.

Asked how to ensure that, Boone had a simple answer: “Just keep doing it.”

“Pounding the zone,” the manager said. “I feel he’s doing a really good job mixing his fastball and changeup.”

The manager also noted that Williams mostly pitched well from early May until mid-July, but that Williams’ awful performance to open the year hung over much of the rest of the year.

“There were just a couple [bad] outings there off a couple [good] months,” Boone said. “But it’s on the heels of the start of the season. He’s a great pitcher and has been for a long time. This is what he’s capable of. He just has to continue to have a presence with his fastball and changeup and being in the zone with it. If he does that, he’s gonna be successful.”