Yankees' bullpen was excellent in first three games

Toward the end of spring training, a National League manager pondered the poisonous impact a bad bullpen can have on a team.

“You just never feel secure,” he said. “You take a lead and the [first] thought is like, ‘OK, how is this going to go wrong when we call down there [to the bullpen]?’ It affects everything. We feel it. Players [feel it] too.”

It is a feeling that Aaron Boone, now in his fifth season as Yankees manager, hasn’t often had in his tenure, if he’s had it at all.

Sure, there have been blown leads and blown saves, but that’s a part of a 162-game regular season for all 30 teams.  The key is keeping those to a minimum.

And although Clarke Schmidt allowed Bobby Dalbec’s tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning of Sunday night’s 4-3 loss to the Red Sox at the Stadium,  the Yankees’ bullpen has been, as expected, lights out.

The Red Sox took the lead against the Yankees' starting pitcher in each of the three games in the series, but the Yankees won two of three anyway, thanks in large part to the bullpen. Entering Monday night, the unit  had allowed two earned runs in 18 2/3 innings (0.96 ERA)  with 19 strikeouts and had given up one hit in its last 12 2/3 innings.

“It’s certainly been one of the overwhelming strengths that this team has had now for a while and we certainly feel like it has a chance to be that this year,” Boone said Saturday after six relievers combined to throw six scoreless innings in a 4-2 victory (seven relievers allowed one earned run in seven innings the day before in a 6-5, 11-inning victory). “Obviously, knowing in this month of April where . . . you’re going to have to lean on them. To go out and pitch the way they have the first two nights here to kind of set the tone against a really good offensive team, you know, they’re capable of that. But it’s good to see them be as sharp as they have been.”

On Friday, Chad Green, Clay Holmes, Miguel Castro, Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta, Aroldis Chapman and Michael King led the way after starter Gerrit Cole struggled.

On Saturday, Ron Marinaccio — a native of Toms River – Castro, Lucas Luetge, Green, Holmes and Chapman followed starter Luis Severino to the mound and did the job.

“We just can throw a lot of different looks at guys and it’s not going to be the same guys running out each time,” said Green, a Yankee since 2016 who, since being moved full-time to a relief role in 2017, has been a part of some standout bullpens. “Just a great group to be a part of.''

Green said one of the keys to the group’s success has been the fact that it is composed of “guys willing to pitch in any situation.”

“There’s no egos down there, there’s nobody saying, ‘I have to pitch in this situation,’ ” Green said. “Our job is to get the ball to Chappy.''

Anthony Rizzo, who won the 2016 World Series with the Cubs -- who had Chapman, a trade- deadline acquisition from the Yankees, at the back end of their bullpen -- said the feeling of confidence in the dugout is palpable.

“Teams, when you don’t have the lead and you can hold being down by only a couple of runs and not give them more runs, it gives us belief [we can] come back,” Rizzo said. “It goes hand-in-hand. Once you believe you can do it and once you do it, you believe more.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.