Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton left tonight’s Game 3 loss in Cleveland with what the team called tightness in the left calf. The right-hander told Dan Martin and Greg Joyce of the New York Post that he will go for imaging before tomorrow night’s game.

Aaron Boone called on Hamilton in the sixth inning with New York trailing 2-1. He issued a leadoff walk to Avenue Thomas for Daniel Schneemann hit a grounder to first base. Jon Berti knocked the ball down and turned to Hamilton who covered the clean sheet. Hamilton apparently pinched his calf while running for the bag. He first threw a warm-up throw after a replay of the call. He sent the pitch by airmail and was immediately admitted Tim Mayza.

Hamilton had a breakout season in 2023 after signing a minor league contract. He threw 58 innings of 2.64 ERA ball with a 28.9% strikeout rate and an excellent 55.3% grounder rate. His follow-up was more solid than great. Hamilton allowed 3.82 earned runs per nine through 35 regular season appearances. The strikeouts dropped a few percentage points, while his groundball rate plummeted to a pedestrian 43.8%. The 29-year-old missed a few months of midseason due to a lat strain.

New York has included Hamilton on each of their playoff rosters, though he hasn’t played a major role. He made one appearance in the Division Series, working 1 1/3 scoreless frames with three strikeouts in their Game 2 loss to the Royals. This was Hamilton’s first action of the ALCS.

If the Yankees have to replace him on the roster, his season will be over. Players eliminated midway through a play-off round will not be eligible for subsequent series. The Post writes that one of Mark Leiter Jr. or Clayton Beeter would step into the bullpen as a replacement. Beeter has just three MLB games under his belt. Leiter has much more experience and seems likely to get the call.

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports (on New York acquired the right-hander from the Cubs at the deadline. Leiter struck out almost 35% of the batters he faced at that time. He still missed a fair amount of bats in the Bronx (31.7% strikeout rate), but gave up far too much hard contact. Leiter has been tagged for six home runs in 21 2/3 innings as a Yankee and has stayed out of both series thus far.