Yankees News, 8/26: Boone skips over stud young pitcher, big West Coast series set to begin

The New York Yankees are preparing to take on the Oakland Athletics in the first game of a four-game series on Thursday evening. With the game starting at 9:40 PM, the Yankees will host Jameson Taillon on the mound.

As of late, Taillon has been phenomenal for the Bombers, allowing eight runs over his last five games, including 28 total strikeouts. Despite having a 3.94 ERA, Taillon has taken tremendous steps forward in his rehabilitation after coming back from his second Tommy John surgery.

However, Oakland is no pushover but has lost their last four games straight. In fact, they have lost nine of their last 11 games, giving the Yankees a solid advantage heading into Thursday night’s match-up.

The Athletics will host James Kaprielian on the mound, currently enjoying a 3.25 ERA on the season over 88.2 innings pitched. In his last outing against the San Francisco Giants, he allowed just one run over 5.0 innings.

Nonetheless, the Yankees’ offense has been on fire as of late, so there’s a good chance he will have his work cut out for him. Starting off the series on a good note will give the Yankees the necessary momentum to continue their winning streak, coming off a series sweep against Atlanta Braves.

Yankees skipped over one of those young star pitchers:

Over three games, young starting pitcher Luis Gil hasn’t given up an earned run. With a 15.2 inning sample size, Gil houses a 0.00 ERA, logging 10.34 strikeouts per 9 and a 100% left on-base percentage. This must be one of the best performances from a debut pitcher this season, if not in the team’s history.

However, the Yanks remain cautiously optimistic he can continue this impressive trend of success. Boone elected to skip over him due to a rainout this past week but still has Gil at the forefront of his mind.

Skipper Aaron Boone referenced a rainout as the reason Luis Gil was skipped over in the rotation:

“After the washout and everything, (we’re) keeping everyone on line,” manager Aaron Boone said Monday. “So (Gil) will be pitch (Tuesday in Triple-A). Obviously, he’s on the radar and he earned that with a lot of good performances. But once we were rained out Sunday, that skipped it for this time.”