Luke Weaver made an unreal Mariano Rivera-style playoff run

Do you see it and don't want to say it?

Because it feels like baseball sacrilege to even think it, let alone express it. So be careful with the wording. The last thing you want to do is compare someone to Beethoven or Michael Jordan based on a small sample size.

So what is the right language to use to get the most out of something in a short amount of time? You want to talk about seeing a bit of genius without being ridiculed. You don't want to just pause in time and overvalue anything. You want to avoid getting caught up in the moment.

So here's the comfort zone – have you noticed that Luke Weaver is on a Mariano Rivera run, so to speak? Please, please, please note the use of the word “run.” Rivera didn't have a run. He had two decades of brilliance – the greatest regular-season reliever of all time and perhaps the greatest postseason pitcher of all time and the only Unani Mo-us inductee into the Hall of Fame.

Thus, one month has traces of Rivera, but not the entire month. But doesn't Weaver fit into that mode anymore since he officially unofficially moved closer on September 6th? Can't you see a little “mo” in what Weaver is doing?

They know that the 1.80 meter tall, slim, hyper-athletic right-hander failed to find the role of his life as a former starter. The reduction of the lineups to economy and a lack of drama. The Super Strike Throwing. The re-mo-val of walks and home runs and good luck for the opponent getting three singles before three outs to score a run. The movement on the pitches to avoid the path of the bat. The dominance over left-handers. The stamina to last well for more than one inning. The controlled e-mo-tion that makes it possible to boost a game in the midst of the October stress.

“It's high-level strike-throwing,” agreed Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake when asked about the Rivera-like competition. “It's a high level of awareness of where he needs to use his fastball to stay away from the sweet spots of the barrel (of the bat).”

It allows Weaver to do for Aaron Boone what Rivera once did for Joe Torre and Joe Girardi – change the math of the game. Rivera's managers played the game backwards. It was a game of 24 and, at this time of year, often 21 outs for the other team, as Rivera had between the last three and six outs. The opposition knew it. Pinch hitters came into play earlier because why wait for futility against Rivera? Previously, there was great desperation among the opposition. They knew Rivera was out there. And a Yankee manager could line up everyone else just the same way.

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Weaver is not at this mo-untaintop. The Division Series at least featured a Royal team that primarily hits singles and doesn't often draw walks or strikeouts. In the Yankees' three-games-to-one triumph, Kansas City collected six extra-base hits and seven walks and hit .237. The entire Yankee bullpen was outstanding (one unearned run in 15²/₃ innings), with the pitching work of Tommy Kahnle and a revitalized Clay Holmes standing out.

But Weaver was more than that. He used his fastball/changeup repertoire (mixed with cutter) to face 15 Royals, allowing two singles, recording five strikeouts, not only drawing zero walks, but also three batters with just one to achieve one. Like Holmes, he appeared in all four games and secured all three wins. He got more than three outs twice. The left-hander went hitless with two hits in five attacks.

And this has continued since Boone changed his pen. He has been mo-ney since Holmes' motion from Closer, and thus Weaver's endorsement motion, on September 6th. Over that span, including the Division Series, Weaver has thrown 15 ¹/₃ innings with no earned runs, three walks and 29 strikeouts – or 52.7 percent of those he faced. The lefties are 2-for-23 against him – both singles. And the entire bullpen has performed well since then, as it once did with Rivera, with a 1.68 ERA, a .177 opponents' batting average and just six of 29 inherited runners scoring.

“There’s always some of that confidence and dynamism that you feel and pass on,” Holmes said of the group.

Again, the Royals were in the playoffs in a very short span of time since September 6th. Relievers – even the best – are volatile. It was hard to be more dominant than Devin Williams when he beat the Mets in a 1-2-3 ninth in Wild Card Game 2, and the next night the brilliant Brewers closer gave up the game-winning home run in the ninth inning to Pete Alonso .

Emmanuel Clase is probably the best reliever in the sport, allowing five earned runs in 74¹/₃ throughout the regular season. Then the Guardians right-hander gave up four earned runs between appearances in Division Series Games 2 and 4 against the Tigers.

Even Rivera occasionally gave up big runs this time of year. But most of all, the comfort he brought with his genius was the key to five Yankees championships. More and more, the Yankees are experiencing that Rivera-style tenor with Weaver. You see Mo in him as you take Mo out of him.

If he can keep it up, it won't be total Rivera, but it would be significant.