Yankees’ Michael King strikes out eight in another dominant relief outing

In retrospect, after Guardians left fielder Josh Naylor grounded out to second base in the sixth inning, he should have been greeted with high-fives from a celebratory visiting dugout. 

After all, he actually put his bat on a pitch thrown by Michael King. 

The reliever was nearly untouchable in three innings of relief in the Yankees’ 4-1 win over Cleveland on Friday night at the Stadium, contributing eight of the team’s 15 strikeouts — including seven in a row, one short of the franchise record. 

King took the baton from Jameson Taillon, who allowed one run in five innings, and made the Guardians pine for the starter. King, who said he felt “terrible” in his bullpen session before the game, faced 10 batters: He allowed a single to Amed Rosario, the ground out by Naylor and punched out the other eight. 

He struck out Bobby Bradley to end the sixth then whiffed the side in the seventh and eighth innings, falling one strikeout short of the Yankees’ record of eight in a row, set by Ron Davis in 1981. 

“Boonie, come on!” King jokingly replied when informed that he would have had a chance at history if the manager had left him in. 

King, who has found a home as a multi-inning option out of the bullpen rather than pitching in the rotation, lowered his ERA to 0.84. He has surrendered one earned run in 10 ²/₃ innings and has put out several fires, though he only needed to douse Guardians hitters this time. 

“He’s a really talented dude. Super jealous of the sinker-slider-curveball combo, whatever he wants to call it,” Taillon said of King. 

The whole arsenal is a sinker, four-seamer, curveball and changeup, all of which were on. He recorded a strikeout with each of his four pitches and said this was the first time all season he could command all of them. 

Normally, if one or two of his pitches is on, he can survive an outing. He was more than surviving. 

“When I have all four, it allows me to do some fun stuff and toy around with players, really keep them off balance,” said King, who got ahead of Jose Ramirez with a sinker and four-seamer before finishing off the star with a changeup. 

Few relievers have a repertoire that deep. The more King, who has started plenty in the past, dominates in short bursts, the more the Yankees will be questioned regarding if or when they want him in the rotation again. 

“Not right now,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just because he’s so valuable in this role. He’s closed a game. He’s got the ability to come in and give us a few innings like he did tonight. We have five starters right now.” 

But, the manager added, “The book is certainly not closed on that.”