CLEVELAND — Three relief pitchers that barely figured into the Yankees’ plans when spring training ended helped punch their ticket to the World Series.
Tim Hill, Jake Cousins and Luke Weaver combined on the final 14 outs Saturday as the Yankees defeated the Guardians, 5-2, in Game 5 of the ALCS.
Weaver was the winning pitcher after Juan Soto’s tie-breaking three-run home run in the top of the 10th inning.
As late as June 18, Hill was toiling with a 5.87 ERA for the White Sox, who would become the worst single-season team in modern MLB history.
He was released the next day, and now his former teammates and coaches are watching him get big outs day after day in playoff games.
And Hill wasn’t alone in getting the last laugh.
Cousins — who didn’t make the White Sox roster out of spring training and was subsequently traded to the Yankees — also answered the bell in Game 5.
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The duo combined for eight big outs.
The side-arming left-hander Hill faced four batters and got two double plays — no easy feat — to help the Yankees keep the score tied at 2-2.
Pitching for the third day in a row and for the fifth time in five games this series because top relievers Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle were likely unavailable, Hill replaced Mark Leiter Jr. with one on and one out in the sixth.
He gave up a single to Bo Naylor before inducing a 4-4-3 double play from Andres Gimenez.
Manager Aaron Boone stuck with Hill to start the seventh and showed faith in him after issuing a leadoff walk to Brayan Rocchio.
Hill rewarded the faith by retiring Steven Kwan — who extended his Cleveland franchise record postseason on-base streak to 16 straight games earlier — on an unassisted double play by Oswaldo Cabrera.
Cousins, who has been used far more sparingly than Hill during the playoffs, struck out four of the five batters he faced as he finished out the seventh and worked around a two-out walk in the eighth.
He pumped his fists and let out a big howl as he walked off the mound.
“[Hill] had a little bit more [time] in the trenches there,” Cousins said earlier this postseason of their time with the 121-loss White Sox. “But the fact that both of us are in this bullpen and we play important roles, it’s a very cool scenario to get in a good situation and kind of just get to run.”
Weaver entered the season as a potential long man after making an unlikely strong impression down the stretch last season.
He kept getting bigger and bigger roles until he replaced Holmes as the closer in September.
After pitching in the Yankees’ first seven playoff games, Weaver was bypassed for the save in Game 4.
The day of rest allowed him to go two innings to close out the series, including winning an eight-pitch battle with Bo Naylor.
The three might still be called “journeymen,” but they will be names Yankees’ fans remember.
