There’s a lot of conjecture that the Yankees may have the best rotation in baseball, thanks in part to resurgences by Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino and Nestor Cortes’ Cy Young-quality season.
If you ask Aaron Boone? He agrees, with a caveat.
“I think they’ve been the best group, to this point, in the league," Boone said after Friday’s 2-0 win over the Rays, which saw Taillon throw eight scoreless. “I caution that with it’s early, and we gotta keep doing it, but I’m not surprised that they’re going out and pitching as well as they are. I know how together they all are, and it’s good to see them taking pride in their day and being the next guy to really step up, but I’m really not surprised at any of their success.”
Taillon’s outing was the second straight game a Yankees pitcher got through eight against the Rays, as Cortes went eight-plus and allowed just one run (which scored after he left). The Yankees entered Taillon’s outing leading the league in opponents’ reach percentage – opposing teams reach base just 27.3 percent of the time against the rotation – and after the eight shutout innings, the rotation’s 2.78 ERA is second-lowest in MLB behind the Dodgers.
The Yankees also lead the league in walks per nine innings (1.89), and with nearly one strikeout per innings – 8.99 per nine, sixth in the league – they lead MLB with a 4.85 K/BB ratio. They’re throwing strikes, getting outs, and winning games.
"You’ve gotta be in the strike zone," said Boone. "Obviously, getting ahead’s important, strike-throwing is really important, and when you’re doing that, then you can start leveraging counts and dictating counts and then you can start to get chases by moving it off the plate when you have that count leverage.”
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Gerrit Cole hasn’t quite been an ace but has been solid, and Jordan Montgomery has been his usual strong self despite a lack of run support – but the Yankees have gotten more than they could’ve expected out of their other three starters, all surprises for various reasons.
Severino, for instance, was an unknown after missing most of the last three years, but will enter Sunday with a 3.02 ERA and a K/9 of 9.3, even if he has the highest BB/9 (2.4) of the bunch. Cortes, who wasn’t even guaranteed a rotation spot to begin the year, now leads the team with 53 innings pitched and sports a 1.70 ERA that’s second in MLB behind Texas’ Martin Perez.
And then there’s Taillon, who over his last two starts has thrown 15 innings of one-run ball, with one walk and 12 strikeouts, bringing his ERA down to 2.49. Taillon struggled in the first half last year in his return from Tommy John surgery and had his offseason interrupted by ankle surgery, but so far, he has become one of the better starters in the league.
"We wanted to attack, we wanted to get a read on what they were doing and where they were looking and stuff, so our goal was just to fill up the strike zone, mix, and kind of go from there,” Taillon said of his outing Friday. “We just never got off that rhythm. That’s a really tough lineup, and they’ve seen me a good amount, but I feel like I’m in a better spot this year.”
And so, too, are the Yankees, who enter Saturday’s game with a league-best 33-13 record.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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