Tuesday night wasn’t just a turnaround for the Yankees, it was a redemption performance from Jameson Taillon, who was knocked around for eight hits and five earned runs in 3.2 innings against the Blue Jays a week ago.
On Tuesday, Taillon gave the Yanks reason for hope that he can provide another stable arm in a rotation in desperate need of depth. Taillon went five strong innings, his longest outing of the season so far, allowing just one run and one walk while striking out five. Most importantly, it resulted in a win for the Yanks and the end of a five-game losing streak.
“I thought the stuff was really good,” Taillon said after the victory. “What I was most excited about was the stuff I worked on between the outings showed up today. We found the top of the zone. I the way more curveballs, and we got that into the game plan.”
Taillon picked up eight whiffs on his fastball and felt his stuff was much closer to where it was in 2019 before he underwent his second Tommy John surgery. The outcome backed up that sentiment in what was a strong outing that the Yankees badly needed.
“If you see on Pitching Ninja and stuff and stuff where the high fastballs and curveballs really look the same out of the hand, it’ makes the decision a little harder on the hitters,” Taillon said. “I thought we had a really good fastball/curveball combo.”
Perhaps most importantly for Taillon and the Yankees, the righty could have gone deeper into the game if needed. The Yanks need longer outings from their starters outside of Gerrit Cole, and Aaron Boone said after Tuesday’s win that the decision to take Taillon out after the fifth was based out of strategy, not necessity. In fact, he feels Taillon has the green light to turn in a 100-pitch outing after he was slowly brought due to his lack of innings in recent years due to injury.
“I would have gone more with him,” Boone said. “He’s built up to where I feel good about him getting into the 90s, even up to 100 at this point.”
More innings out of Taillon, especially effective ones like on Tuesday, would go a long way for the Yankees, who would like to preserve what has been a dominant bullpen for the duration of the season. Taillon hopes his next outing will allow him to reach that 90-100 pitch count and continue into a fuller workload.
“I haven’t pitched past the fifth yet,” Taillon said. “I still felt good but we were facing the lineup for a third time…completing the fifth, I thought that was a good step forward. Hopefully going forward there won’t be any restrictions.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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