Clay Holmes might've sneakily unveiled a new (old) pitch during Yankees' playoff run

If there's one area where New York Yankees reliever Clay Holmes wavering belief has never manifested, it's postseason baseball. Though the summer's slings and arrows ultimately (and deservedly) cost him his closer role, Holmes was able to operate with the assurance that, if he could just get right, his favorite month lingered closely on the horizon: October, where he's still yet to allow an earned run in his career.

That stretch continued through the ALDS against the Kansas City Royals, as Holmes added five three-hit, one-walk innings to his previous total of eight shutout frames, reaching 13 spotless playoff innings altogether. And he did it all via the power of the bowling ball sinker, trust, friendship, and an extra tool that's been buried in the back of his toolbox all along.

As MLB's Mike Petriello noted as the Yankees' ALDS victory cooled on the windowsill, Holmes' long dormant four-seam fastball seems to have reappeared during the season's spotlight month.

How did it get there? When did he and Matt Blake brainstorm this wrinkle? Are they really four-seamers, or just misclassified sinkers that aren't sinking quite as much? While that was the suspicion during Game 2's broadcast, the "sinker" seems pretty straightforward to us.

Yankees reliever Clay Holmes may have reintroduced four-seam fastball to his arsenal

The four-seamer once served as a significant complement to Holmes' bread and butter; it was thrown 22.6% of the time in 2018 and 10.3% in 2019 before being all but tossed aside. Notably, Holmes was a scuffling reliever looking for command and identity back then, posting 6.84 and 5.58 ERAs with the Pirates during those two campaigns.

After being traded to the Yankees in the summer of 2021, Holmes truly found himself, though his abandonment of the four-seamer entirely happened a little bit earlier. By the shortened pandemic season, it was essentially a fossil, only to be resurrected this October when the flamethrower needed a little extra kick to recall his former glory.

Holmes staying spotless has been far beyond even the Yankees' wildest expectations; remember, he did blow two saves in September in non-ninth-inning situations. He wasn't immediately transformed. This transition took real work, and every second was essential.

And, if the radar readings are to be believed, a minor subversion of expectations, thrown at 99 miles per hour, might be playing a small role in Holmes' lack of predictability and sinker's shine.