Fastball

Baseball Fans React on "X" to Seemingly Unfathomable Feat From New York Yankees Reliever

The New York Yankees are one win away from the World Series and reliever Tommy Kahnle is doing things that feel ridiculous on the mound.

Brady Farkas

New York Yankees pitcher Tommy Kahnle (41) throws during the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians in game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on Oct 17.
New York Yankees pitcher Tommy Kahnle (41) throws during the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians in game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on Oct 17. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
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The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 8-6 on Friday night to take a 3-1 series lead in the American League Championship Series. With the win, the Yankees are just one win away from clinching their first trip to the World Series since 2009.

The Guardians, who won the American League Central, are now just one loss away from seeing their season end.

The Yankees got a big three-run homer from Giancarlo Stanton in the win and they also got two massive runs late off Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase to fuel the victory. Reliever Tommy Kahnle earned the save by throwing a scoreless ninth inning.

In that ninth inning, Kahnle did something almost unfathomable: Every pitch he threw was a changeup. All 18 of them. And what's even more amazing is that Kahnle has thrown 44 consecutive changeups in this series, according to @CodifyBaseball.

Kahnle is a guy who's traditionally had a fastball in the mid-90s so the decision to completely abolish the fastball is rather fascinating. Typically, guys don't like to throw right-on-right changeups, but Kahnle is throwing the pitch every single chance he gets.

His decision to do this has people all over social media intrigued as well:

The 35-year-old Kahnle is in his 11th big league season with the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Yankees. Lifetime, he's 10-14 with a 3.47 ERA.

The Yankees and Guardians will meet again on Saturday night for Game 5 of the ALCS. First pitch is set for 8:08 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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