How Jonathan Loaisiga was lone Yankees bright spot in ugly loss to A’s

Yankees rookie Jonathan Loaisiga continued to impress with two scoreless innings against the A’s in Oakland on Monday, September 3, 2018 (9/3/18).

Watch video

OAKLAND — Yankees manager Aaron Boone started and then paused.

“That’s … ” he said, just before shaking his head and then finding the words. “That was pretty impressive.”

Boone had just seen rookie right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga own the A’s for the final two innings of a 6-3 loss at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Monday.

Happ “for sure” open to return

Loaisiga entered in the seventh inning and struck out the side. In the eighth, he gave up a double that wasn’t hit particularly hard and found the right spot.

The 23-year-old from Nicaragua hadn’t pitched since going on the disabled list in early July with shoulder trouble.

His impressive season vaulted him to the Yankees’ No. 3 overall prospect in MLB Pipeline’s top 30 team rankings. He’s also No. 73 in the game, according to the website.

Loaisiga went 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his first four big-league outings, all starts, after getting bumped directly from Double-A to the majors this year.

He was 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in four starts at High-A Tampa and 3-1 with a 3.93 ERA in nine starts in Trenton.

As the Yankees continue to push toward the playoffs, it’s possible he could see more work out of the bullpen, potentially in bigger spots, considering his effort Monday.

The Yankees’ rotation seems mostly set and they might prefer not to tax Loaisiga’s arm, which has already thrown more innings this season (56) that last year, even with a lengthy disabled list stint.

“So, I mean, you’re talking about a guy who is obviously here that can give us length and we’ve seen flashes of him obviously early in the year when he came up as a starter and pitched well,” Boone said. “But if guys go out and deliver the kind of goods he did (Monday), he was dominant for two innings, and you start, as this month unfolds, there’s opportunities to earn a more significant, a larger role, and maybe not just length.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.