It was as if Devin Williams was trying to get everything out of the way as soon as possible.
He faced his former team, the only team he had known before the offseason trade.
He pitched with the Yankees in an official game.
He danced his way into his first major jam in pinstripes.
Against serious threats in the batter’s box, he bore down and escaped that trouble, which helped him win his first championship belt in the postgame clubhouse.
And, most significantly, he saved his first game with his new club.
In a busy, somewhat wild but ultimately successful debut, the Yankees’ new closer pitched his best when he absolutely needed to in Thursday’s 4-2 Opening Day win over the Brewers in The Bronx.
Twice, Williams used the word “weird” to explain a day and performance that was not quite customary.
First, as he lined up on the first-base side of the field during pregame ceremonies, he peeked across to see some teammates he had shared a clubhouse with since getting his call-up in 2019.
Later, as he jogged in from the home bullpen in a game the Yankees led by three entering the top of the ninth, he had to pause, uncertain where to go: The Yankees had challenged whether Trent Grisham had indeed been thrown out trying to steal second to end the eighth, and Williams would have to make a U-turn if the challenge were successful.
It wasn’t, so a few minutes later, a strange first game in pinstripes could begin — and then it wouldn’t end.
A single, double and walk — to former teammate and former Yankee Jake Bauers, who laid off two air-bending changeups that fell out of the strike zone — loaded the bases before he recorded his first out.
“I didn’t think my command was the best today, to be honest with you,” said Williams, an All-Star the past two seasons with the Brewers. “But they also laid off some really good pitches at the same time. Thought they had a really good plan against me — there’s no one that knows me better than that team over there, and they really made me work for this.”
A Brice Turang sacrifice fly traded a run for an out. Bauers swiped second base to put the tying run in scoring position.
If the Yankees learned their shiny new closer could encounter danger, they also learned he could navigate out of it.
Twenty-one-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio swung through a full-count Airbender that landed at the bottom of the zone.
With Fernando Cruz fully warmed up, manager Aaron Boone stuck with a tiring Williams, who maxed out at 18 pitches during the Grapefruit League and doubled that total on this afternoon.
The star, if a no-longer-prime one, who is Christian Yelich swung through a full-count fastball, and Williams roared off the mound.
“Love that he didn’t break,” said Boone, who acknowledged Williams was a batter away from being pulled.
“It was cool,” a stoic Williams said. “Got the first one out of the way.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
