Luke Weaver aces save chance to back Luis Gil’s gem in Yankees win

CHICAGO — For someone who couldn’t see straight, Luke Weaver nailed the audition. 

The first save opportunity after the Yankees opened up the closer’s role earlier this week went to Weaver, who was Aaron Boone’s choice to face the heart of the Cubs’ lineup. 

Running on adrenaline in his first career save opportunity, Weaver worked around a walk to finish off a one-hitter and the Yankees’ 3-0 win over the Cubs on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. 

After Luis Gil spun six strong innings in his return from the injured list, Boone turned to Jake Cousins, Tommy Kahnle and Weaver for the final nine outs that have often been tough to come by for the Yankees bullpen heading down the stretch of a playoff race. 

Weaver, a former starter who has carved out a high-leverage relief role this season, handled the pressure well. 

“Well, I could give you the correct answer — the professional answer — or I can give you an actual answer: I couldn’t see straight,” Weaver said when asked about his first career save. “I was blacked out for the most part. I was on pure adrenaline.

“But it was a great time. It’s an honor to be able to go out there and try to get three of the most important outs in the ballgame and try to get the momentum going on our side.” 

With the win, the Yankees (81-60) won for only the third time in their last nine games — and temporarily moved into a tie for first place in the AL East pending the Orioles’ game Friday night against the Rays — while cooling off the Cubs (72-69), who had won 9 of 12 coming into play. 

After Clay Holmes blew his league-leading 11th save of the season on Tuesday against the Rangers, Boone said he would determine his closer based on matchups moving forward, which could still include Holmes.

But after Gil was dominant for six innings, Boone had Cousins face the middle of the Cubs order in the seventh and Kahnle the 8-9-1 batters in the eighth before Weaver worked the ninth with a pair of left-handed bats due up. 

With some help from a generous strike zone, Weaver struck out Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki before getting 0-2 to Cody Bellinger.

But he then threw four straight balls to bring up Isaac Paredes, who entered an 11-pitch battle that Weaver won out by generating a ground ball to end the game. 

“I thought he looked great,” Boone said. “I thought his stuff was excellent. … He came out with a lot of life to the fastball. It was one of his better fastballs of the year, which is obviously a really good pitch for him. It was high-90s. Looked like the shapes of them were really good. Came out on the attack.” 

Asked if Weaver would get more save opportunities moving forward, Boone said he could, but reiterated it would be “a little bit of everyone.” Weaver sounded up for the job. 

“I think as someone who started for most of his career in that role, as the writing on the wall shifted a little bit and where I was in my career of late, this is something that I aspire to hopefully be at one point, if I was going to be in the bullpen,” said Weaver, who made his MLB debut at Wrigley Field back in 2016 with the Cardinals. “When you’re in the bullpen, you want to do the best you can to get outs and keep runs off the board. But this is the premier role and it’s just a really cool feeling to be able to go out there and have the trust I can go do it.” 

Asked about blacking out on the mound, the dry-humored, quick-witted Weaver described it as, “a heightened vision that then becomes blurry, a heart rate that feels uncontrollable, a numbness that goes through the body, yet everything is working at the same time.” 

The Yankees made sure there was a save opportunity to be had by putting together a three-run rally in the third inning.

Aaron Judge laced an RBI double down the third-base line before Austin Wells went the other way for a two-run single. 

Gil and the bullpen took care of the rest on a day that doubled as a homecoming celebration for former Cub Anthony Rizzo. 

“I thought as the game went on, you just saw Gil get more and more confident,” said Rizzo, who went 1-for-3 with a walk and some strong defense at first base. “When he’s throwing with that confidence, it’s fun to watch. He set the tone for us. Weaver was electric.

“He came out throwing hard and he relished that opportunity.”