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Mark Leiter Jr. knows the expectations after coming over in a deadline trade and knows too many of his pitches have wound up in the seats, having allowed five home runs in his first 16 games with the Yankees after he was victimized by just two homers in 39 Cubs games this season.
He also knows the bright side: There are a few weeks before the regular season ends and October begins.
“The good thing is we still have some time,” Leiter said before the Yankees finished a series with the Royals in The Bronx on Wednesday.
The other good thing: Leiter’s stuff has not disappeared.
Part of what made Leiter so appealing to the Yankees was his ability to miss bats, which would fit in well in a bullpen that did not strike out many batters for much of the season.
In his first six weeks in pinstripes, Leiter struck out 22 in 15 ²/₃ innings, an encouraging sign that, even if he had been hit hard several times, his movement and velocity were intact.
“My swing-and-miss is there,” said Leiter, who began the night with a 5.74 ERA since the trade. “My confidence is there.”
Good results have not been there, particularly with his sinker.
Of the five home runs that he had served up with the Yankees, four had come against the sinker, opposing hitters batting .652 against the pitch in the span.
The Royals’ Tommy Pham drilled his home run against Leiter’s sinker Tuesday.
The Nationals’ Jacob Young connected with the pitch for a dinger on Aug. 26, too.
“Sinker’s been hit, and it’s something I’m thinking about,” said Leiter, who owns one of the best pitches (his splitter) in baseball but has been burned a few times earlier in counts.
The 33-year-old has been used a bit differently with the Yankees, who have a pair of effective lefties in their bullpen.
The righty Leiter has been stronger against lefty batters in his career, and prior to the swap essentially served as the Cubs lefty specialist.
Before the trade, he had faced 54 righty batters and 98 lefties this season.
After the trade — because manager Aaron Boone can turn to southpaws Tim Hill and Tim Mayza along with righty Tommy Kahnle, who is excellent against lefties — Leiter had faced 33 lefty batters and 46 righties, the latter of whom have hit Leiter hard (a .391 on-base percentage and .610 slugging percentage with three home runs).
The Yankees and Leiter hope that this stretch — in which he has flashed dominance but during which just about any mistake (and some not even mistakes) have turned into home runs — will be forgotten during the final weeks and into the postseason.
“Still trying to get to know him,” Boone said Tuesday, after Leiter allowed two hits in 1 ²/₃ innings, but one of which was that Pham home run. “There’s been a lot of good within every outing. There’s been some outings where he’s been real strong. There’s been some outings where he’s gotten hurt with slug. Whether it’s the fastball, whether it’s getting behind, not landing some of his secondary pitches and he gets backed into a corner.
“Gotta keep grinding with him and get him in positions to be successful.”
