CINCINNATI – If Tuesday’s 5-4, 11-inning loss to the Reds proved anything, it’s that Aaron Boone just will not throw Devin Williams for more than one inning.

Williams threw nine pitches in the ninth after not pitching on Monday. He was not asked to come back out for the 10th in a still-tied game.

But somehow losing pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. was available for the 10th and 11th despite throwing 27 pitches on Monday. Boone called Leiter, who threw 28 pitches on Tuesday, a “warrior” for his efforts. 

Williams seems more likely to shave his beloved beard than be asked to pitch a second inning.

“At the end of the day, it’s his decision,” Williams said before Wednesday night’s series finale at Great American Ball Park. “It wasn’t brought to my attention (to pitch a second inning), but obviously I feel like the bullpen works better when guys are only going one inning.”

Williams is 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA and 10 saves in 11 chances. In 33 appearances, has thrown 29 1/3 innings. Not one of his appearances has been for more than three outs.

Williams last pitched more than one inning on Sept. 1, 2023, when he got four outs for Milwaukee. He did it three outings in a row in May of that season, but that was over a 12-day span.

In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Williams’ last three appearances for the Brewers were all two innings over a six-day span.

“They used me for two innings multiple times in a week and I ended up hurt,” Williams said. “And then I didn’t do it anymore.”

Williams may have been referring to going two innings, not going more than one, since he did get more than three outs a few times after 2020. Being asked to go two doesn’t seem to be anything he needs to worry about with the Yankees.

“He's here as kind of a one-inning guy,” Boone said. “That's what he's done the last couple of years. Look, I think there's going to be a time when, like a four-out scenario.”

Said Williams: “Definitely, it keeps guys healthier, I think.”

What about pitching on consecutive days?

“We’re expected to go back-to-back all the time,” said Williams, who had done it three times this season going into Wednesday. “If you want to use guys back-to-back, yeah it’s one inning, and then you’re available tomorrow.”

Boone said that after looking at the video and speaking to Major League Baseball, he felt Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s ejection by plate umpire Mark Wegner before the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday may not have been warranted. Chisholm had been griping about a low strike call during an at-bat in the top of the inning.

“I think there’s certainly a case to say that it didn't rise to get thrown out based on just some of the things that he did not say or whatever,” Boone said. “But, that being said, it was a pretty long, animated, drawn-out process. Jazz is an emotional guy, and I think he understands and tries to rein that in some, and that's still a work in progress. I think he understands how much we're all counting on him in that room to be able to stay in certain games . . . especially close games late.”

The Yankees played two men short on Wednesday. A masked Jonathan Loaisiga left the stadium around 5 p.m. because of an illness that caused him to exit Tuesday’s game with the trainer after he allowed three runs in the seventh inning. Catcher J.C. Escarra, who was in the original lineup, left the ballpark after getting a call that his wife had gone into labor with the couple’s first child. Boone said the Yankees did not have time to call up a catcher to replace Escarra. Austin Wells was inserted into the lineup. Backup Ben Rice started at first base . . . Boone said “we’ll see” when asked about the next step for Marcus Stroman, who allowed 10 hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings in his third rehab start for Double-A Somerset on Tuesday night. Allan Winans could get a second start if Stroman (knee) is deemed not ready.