KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s not only the role that Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt will be playing in his second postseason trip that is so much different than it was in the first.
Schmidt has changed, too, since he went 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in 2 ¹/₃ innings out of the bullpen in 2022.
“I feel like a different player and a different person than who I was back then,” Schmidt said. “I was in some situations I wasn’t typically used to when I was getting brought up.
“It was kind of like the perfect storm of, I wouldn’t say not ready for the moment, but things that caught you off guard. How I’m trying to get guys out, I’m a lot more comfortable with. I found my identity a little bit as a pitcher.”
Schmidt will start Wednesday in Game 3 of the ALDS — a swing game with the Yankees and Royals tied after splitting in The Bronx.
It’s a pressure-packed moment, but at least Schmidt can slip into his starting routine like he has 48 times in the regular season since his last postseason outing.
The 28-year-old right-hander isn’t being asked to close out a two-run lead against the Guardians — he blew the save in a walk-off loss — or keep a score tied against the Astros with prime Justin Verlander on the other side.
“These playoff situations, if you let the emotions and energy overwhelm you I think it can throw you off your game,” Schmidt said. “Now I feel very calm and very confident. It should show. I think it showed throughout the year.”
Clarke enjoyed a breakthrough season, pitching to a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts both before and after missing about three months with a strained lat.
Imagining moments like Wednesday pushed him through his rehab.
“In August, when I was going through the injury, I said I wanted to start playoff games,” Schmidt said. “Trying to seize the moment and win a ball game.”
There is one glaring similarity between Schmidt’s last playoff outing (Game 1 of the 2022 ALCS) and his next one: Yuli Guriel.
After Schmidt induced a bases-loaded double play in the fifth inning of that game against the Astros, Guriel hit a tiebreaking home run leading off the sixth.
Two years later, Guriel has two hits, two walks and four runs scored in this series, and his 11-pitch at-bat in Game 1 flustered Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.
“When you are facing Guriel, he has been in these situations so many times before in his career that he’s really good at being able to think along with you,” Schmidt said. “It’s a challenge. He got me in the first one, so I’m definitely looking forward to facing him again.”
Schmidt’s pitch mix includes a much-improved cutter, sweeper, sinker and knucklecurve — all thrown on between 18 and 35 percent of his pitches, per Baseball Savant.
“He’s got all the weapons … to beat you with really good stuff,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Every game you walk into in the playoffs is crucial. Clarke is fully cut out to handle that. Whatever he does, I know he will be prepared and he will walk out there with an expectation to deliver.”
