Yankees learn hard bullpen lessons in ALDS Game 1 loss to Blue Jays

TORONTO — In a game that was competitive until the seventh inning, the Yankees tried to learn about bullpen pieces who were barely or not touched at all in the wild-card round.

The evidence provided from Tim Hill and Camilo Doval in particular was encouraging.

The lessons gained from Luke Weaver’s second postseason appearance and Paul Blackburn’s debut were particularly worrisome.

Tasked with completing a game that Luis Gil left in the third, the relief corps had an up-and-down evening in the 10-1, Game 1 embarrassment to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Saturday.

Virtually all the Yankees gleaned about their bullpen against the Red Sox was the guts inside David Bednar (who pitched in all three games), Devin Williams and Fernando Cruz (who pitched well back-to-back in Games 1 and 2).

Apart from four pitches from Hill and a disastrous three batters Weaver faced, the Bednar-Williams-Cruz trio were the only relievers used.

So as Saturday transitioned to a bullpen game it became essentially a tryout for the other relief arms, and Hill and Doval showed enough to perhaps gain some trust.

Hill entered in the third inning and escaped a two-on jam by inducing a ground out to Alejandro Kirk, who homered twice.

Hill returned for the fourth and needed just 13 pitches to retire the Blue Jays in order, the best and only Yankees lefty delivering against a team with several lefty bats.

Next came Doval, whose stuff is never in question but whose mind and control have failed him too often since coming over from the Giants at the trade deadline.

Doval’s standing in the bullpen had fallen while pitching to a 4.82 ERA in 22 games in pinstripes, but on the biggest stage he showed no nerves.

The hard-throwing righty faced the No. 9 through 5 hitters in the Jays lineup over two innings — his longest outing as a Yankee — and induced three groundouts, two fly outs and one line-drive out. His stuff was hittable but effectively so.

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The trouble began in the seventh, when Weaver entered and allowed a walk and two singles, the second to drive in a run, before he was pulled.

The former closer — and former most reliable arm among the group — has faced six batters in the postseason and retired none. Among many Yankees concerns, Weaver’s struggles might top the list.

The Yankees probably were never going to give Blackburn much of a chance, and it might have been a surprise when he was kept on the roster and Mark Leiter Jr. kicked off.

But Blackburn lost any goodwill he had built up by allowing four runs on six hits in the seventh and eighth.