Slowest pitch in Yankees history belongs to Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Yankees' Isiah Kiner-Falefa delivers against the Minnesota Twins during the ninth inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Isiah Kiner-Falefa didn’t know he broke new ground for this storied franchise Thursday night.
He had no clue that his 38.5-mph eephus pitch, thrown with one out in the ninth inning in the Yankees’ 11-2 loss to the Twins, was the slowest pitch ever recorded in team history.
“Was it? Oh, nice!” Kiner-Falefa said Friday after a shockingly effective outing in which he somehow gave up only one hit. “Too bad it wasn’t a strike . . . When I was warming up in the cage, I just said I was going to lob everything in. I threw the first pitch and I got a strike and I was like, OK, it was a good time to try it. But it would have hit him, so it was like, OK. I banged it quick.”
Indeed, the pitch, thrown over Jose Miranda’s head, looked as if it would have nicked the Twins infielder. The jury is still out on whether Miranda would have felt the impact.
Kiner-Falefa switched back to fastballs, topping out in the mid-70s, in his first game action as a pitcher since middle school.
Kiner-Falefa has played six of the nine positions in his career and wouldn’t mind joining a hallowed crew of utilitymen who have played all nine. He still has first base, leftfield and rightfield to tick off the list.
“I never wanted to pitch,” he said — quickly adding that he was glad he could save the bullpen. “Before my career ends, it’d be nice to get all nine.”
Injury updates
Luis Severino (lat strain) threw a bullpen session on Thursday and came out of it well, Aaron Boone said. His next step will be throwing a two-up (a bullpen session with a rest in between to simulate an inning break).
Carlos Rodon (forearm strain) appears to be getting on track after a back injury delayed the plan to have him face live hitters earlier this week. Rodon threw a touch-and-feel off the slope (a bullpen session that exerts the arm less, not done off a mound) Friday and will throw a two-up bullpen session Sunday or Monday, Boone said. A few days after that, he should be ready to face live batters.
Rodon was shut down in early March, and an April return is very unlikely. He “is ready to take off a little bit,” Boone said, but “he’s going to have to get built up quite a bit.”
Josh Donaldson (hamstring) is eligible to come off the injured list Sunday, but Boone wasn’t completely sure if that will happen. “I know he’s doing really well. He looks good. BP looks good,” Boone said.
Tough cuts
The Yankees designated Colten Brewer for assignment a day after he pitched 3 1/3 innings of mop-up duty and easily could lose him on waivers. Brewer had a rocky performance Thursday, but before that, he allowed one hit and no runs in five innings.
“He’s in a good place in his career and I think we recognized that,” Boone said. “He really saved our bacon a couple of times . . . To [DFA him] is very difficult. In a short amount of time, he earned a lot of respect.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
