For most of July, some of the shine on the Yankees’ bullpen had begun to wear off.
On Wednesday night, without much margin for error, their relief corps was perfect.
Michael King, Wandy Peralta, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes combined for 3 ¹/₃ perfect innings in relief of Carlos Rodon to secure a 3-1 win over the Mets at Yankee Stadium.
“King came in and shut it down, Wandy had another hold, Tommy did his thing and here comes Clay,” Rodon said. “It’s easy to hand the ball over to those guys. They’ll shut it down quick.”
The Yankees’ bullpen finished Wednesday with a 3.20 ERA, still good for the best in baseball despite coming into the day with the lowest fWAR (-0.7) in the majors and a 4.89 ERA in the month of July.
Kahnle was especially sharp in the eighth inning against the heart of the Mets’ order, getting Francisco Lindor to ground out, Pete Alonso to strike out and Tommy Pham to ground out.
It marked his first clean outing since June 24, having allowed at least one base runner in 11 appearances since then with a 4.35 ERA during that span.
“That’s probably as good as he’s looked all year,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But that changeup looked like a forkball from the side tonight. So, good to see him come in and have that kind of outing.”
For the first time since he arrived in The Bronx, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa served as the Yankees’ leadoff man on Wednesday against Mets lefty Jose Quintana.
The right-handed hitting utilityman, playing left field while getting his first start since July 18, went 1-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly.
“I think he’s been doing a great job,” Boone said. “We’ve talked a lot about him really adapting to the role. I think he’s done an excellent job in that. Just wanting to get our righties in there tonight, with him at the top. … I feel like he’s having really good at-bats and like him certainly against left-handed pitching. Just trying to keep and create a little bit of length in our lineup.”
Kiner-Falefa, who hit first in 86 games for the 2021 Rangers, became the ninth different Yankee to hit leadoff this season.
Gleyber Torres singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games. … DJ LeMahieu walked three times for the second consecutive game.
As the Yankees’ front office decides which path it will take ahead of Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline, Boone insists he is keeping his head down and not wondering whether his team will be buyers or sellers.
A day after The Post’s Jon Heyman reported that the Yankees were in trade limbo for a few more days to see where they stood before diving into the market as a full-fledged buyer, Boone said his focus was on his clubhouse.
“Honestly, I’ve kind of just [been] uber-focused on what we’re doing right now as a team,” Boone said. “What we’re going through and trying to get ourselves to be the best we can be and handling that and being on top of that. As things become a potential reality or close to, that’s where I get a little more involved or have more serious conversations, whether it be with [GM Brian Cashman] or anyone.
“But again, that’s a lot of stuff out of my control right now and in some ways out of the team’s control. It takes a lot of people to cooperate to make deals. The biggest thing I’m doing is trying to get us the best we can be.”
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