It could be time for the Cleveland Guardians to curtail their scouting report on New York Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle, whose scoreless ninth inning on Friday featured 22 straight changes. This after a scoreless 1 2/3 innings on Thursday with 18 consecutive changes.

“Normally I can’t make 44 changes in a row,” Kahnle said. “I have to change the approach somewhat. Normally I can’t just throw change after change, but if we tend to get away with it, we can’t deviate from it. But I would definitely like to put some more fastballs in there.”

So far, he’s gotten away with it: Kahnle earned an 8-6 victory in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series that pushed the Yankees 27 outs out of the World Series. Doing that Saturday in Game 5 — the third straight time without an off day — could be manager Aaron Boone’s toughest challenge yet. On Friday he suffered from seizures.

When top lineup man Clay Holmes faltered in the seventh inning — his second meltdown in two nights — Boone went to righty Mark Leiter Jr., whom he had only added to the roster that afternoon.

“We still had a long way to go to the finish, and honestly I wasn’t entirely sure how we were going to get there,” Boone said.

Starter Luis Gil, pitching for the first time since September 28, helped out, pushing himself to 79 pitches in four innings and leaving the game with a 3-2 lead. This left 15 outs, and not enough pitchers to get them. The bullpen, which didn’t allow a run in the American League Division Series, is starting to show signs of wear, starting with seven runs allowed in the first three games, including five in Game 3.

Closer Luke Weaver, top left Tim Hill and Holmes had each pitched in all three games of the series, and Weaver had thrown 62 pitches – just three fewer than Guardians Game 1 starter Alex Cobb. So Weaver was unavailable and the others were limited.

But not just because of how many times they pitched – because of who they encountered. Many fans are now familiar with the third-time-through-the-order effect, in which hitters who face a starter over the past five postseasons increase their weighted on-base average from .310 the first time they face him. see, according to a survey by The Score, from .315 for the second time to .323 for the third time. That’s why you see so many managers pull starting pitchers after 18 batters in October. At that point, they turn to their bullpen, where the effect is even more apparent. The first time hitters see relievers, they post a .298 wOBA; the second time, .300; the third time, .321. (By the fifth time, that figure is .450, making hitters better on average than Shohei Ohtani.)

Some relievers try to mitigate the effects by mixing up their order from one appearance to the next, in one situation holding back a certain pitch in the first game only to break it out in the second or third game. Kahnle prefers the opposite approach: “I just try to get three zeros as quickly as possible,” he says.

Weaver has now faced the three most dangerous Guardians three times each: José Ramírez, Josh Naylor and Lane Thomas. After Game 4, Kahnle also saw three Guardians three times each and another two times; Hill has seen two each three times and two more times; Holmes has seen three of them twice each.

“The more you see a pitcher, the more comfortable you become,” Kahnle sums it up. He acknowledges that fatigue is also a factor, but adds, “Adrenaline is a huge help.”

So Boone turned to Hill, against the top of the order. DH Giancarlo Stanton briefly made things easier when he blasted a three-run homer to center in the fifth against the Guardians’ second-best arm, Cade Smith, to make the score 6-2.

Was Smith tired?

“Everyone is tired,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. “I think we used them a lot. We had to do that. It is who we are.”

Twelve zeros to go. Boone brought in Jake Cousins ​​for the first time this series and got a little greedy when the righty made it into the sixth. “I tried to steal a few outs while Cousins ​​went out again,” Boone said.

Cousins ​​walked the first batter of the seventh and allowed a single in the second. Boone called up Holmes and watched him strikeout-double-double-walk and score three. So Leiter came in with one out and the leading run was on first base.

“What I said to him before the game was, you might end up in the biggest spot of this game,” Boone said.

Leiter got Jhonkensy Noel, who hit a game-tying drive in Game 3, to right and struck out Andrés Giménez to end the threat. He allowed the tying run in the eighth when he failed to make a play at first base, just one of six sloppy moments in the field for both teams. But that gave the Yankees a chance to compete against the best in the game, which also suffers from overexposure.

Emmanuel Clase just had one of the best seasons in history, finishing with a 0.61 ERA, but he was absolutely mortal in the playoffs. The Guardians have lost five games; He has given up a lead in three of them.

“He throws a lot,” Boone said. “Like a lot of our guys, a lot of their guys have pitched in the postseason.”

The Yankees strung together two singles, a stolen base, an error and another single to push their lead to 8-6. To hold it, they turned to Kahnle.

“I know how much most of these guys have thrown,” Boone said. But he wanted to win the game, and he wanted to do it without using Weaver.

“It’s hard to come into a game and say Weaver is down, but you have to have some of that discipline when you’re going through this,” Boone said. “That’s the challenge.”

Kahnle took advantage of a questionable third strike call to get Thomas, then walked Noel and allowed a single to Giménez. With runners on first and second base, he induced a flyout and a grounder to second base to end it.

Perhaps no one breathed easier than Boone, who solved the equation another night. He would certainly prefer to stay away from Kahnle in Game 5, although his reliever insists he will “do everything he can to be (available) tomorrow.” Maybe he’ll even throw a fastball.