NEW YORK — It took exactly two years. Jameson Taillon has been through a second Tommy John surgery and revamped how he throws the ball in those 24 months. He taught himself how to throw again and throw differently. He’s struggled back on a big league mound and he’s started to see progress.
Saturday, he scored another milestone on the road back. Exactly two years to the day from his last big league win, Taillon pitched five solid innings to get the W as the Yankees beat the Tigers 6-4 at the Stadium.
It was the Yankees’ second straight win, just the fifth time they have won consecutive games this season. They clinched the series, just their third of the season, behind the bats of Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, who each had three RBI.
Taillon picked up his first win as a Yankee allowing one run on three hits. He walked three and struck out eight. It was a much cleaner line than May 1, 2019, when he allowed four runs, three earned, as the Pirates beat the Rangers.
Taillon got through five innings, but just barely.
The right-hander cruised through the first four, picking up Clint Frazier after an error on the first play of the game and working around a walk in the second. As he flipped the lineup, things got more interesting. He gave up a two-out solo home run to Jeimer Candelario in the fourth and the Tigers started timing him up in the fifth.
He got lucky when Jacoby Jones’ liner to the left hit Niko Goodrum on the foot as he advanced to third for an automatic out. He walked two to load the bases and had to face Miguel Cabrera. He got to 2-2 on the Tigers’ slugger and then blew a high fastball by him at 94-mph to get out of the inning.
Taillon ran off the mound screaming into his glove after that hard-fought inning.
The start was pretty indicative of his season so far. He went through the lineup once quickly and efficiently. He came into the start with a .147 batting average against the first time through the order. When the lineup turns over and he is seeing hitters for the second time, they are hitting .375 off him. He has not yet made it three times through the lineup.
Aaron Boone gambled Saturday, sitting down his two hottest hitters. Giancarlo Stanton was overdue for a day of rest, the manager said. He’d wanted him to sit on Thursday, but with Aaron Judge out with a mysterious lower body soreness, he played Stanton, who has had three hits in each of his last three games. Boone also sat Gio Urshela.
It didn’t matter against the lowly Tigers.
Besides Judge, three hits, and Torres, two hits, DJ LeMahieu had two hits.
Justin Wilson, who pitched just twice on the eight-game road trip, could not get through an inning Saturday. The left-hander walked the first two batters he faced in the seventh and gave up back-to-back singles, including a two-run single to Jonathan Schoop. The Yankees had to bring in Chad Green to get them out of the inning. Aroldis Chapman closed it with a perfect ninth, featuring two strikeouts.
