The Athletics distribute their hotel rooms alphabetically on the way – probably not uncommon – so James Kaprielian and Tony Kemp usually find themselves as neighbors. On Thursday the neighbors enjoyed a day off in Manhattan and looked ahead.
« He said, ‘Man, I just can’t wait for tomorrow,' » revealed the outfielder Kemp over the Kaprielian mug.
Yes Friday night in the Bronx was a big one for Kaprielian and a painful one for the Yankees. Kaprielian, once a potential pillar of that Yankees team, instead made his Yankee Stadium debut by leading the A to a 5-3 win over the club that designed it. The AL West leaders put an end to the Yankees’ three-game winning streak. And now Kaprielian, the 2015 Yankees first-round draft pick, boasts the 16th overall selection this year, with a 2.84 ERA in seven starts.
If he hasn’t in New York in recent years As he took time to recover from Tommy John’s 2017 operation, he could make it now as a 27-year-old rookie, while the man the Yankees acquired for him (and others) marks Sonny Gray his third season with the Cincinnati Reds after breaking out in the Big Apple.
« I’m not going to lie. I was excited to be here, ”said Kaprielian, who lasted 5² / ₃ innings, allowed three runs and three hits, one walker and seven strikes. “That’s how long I imagined playing on this hill and wearing a different uniform. But being here at all is something special. ”
Ever since the Yankees returned to attack mode at the baseball operations level and carried out a number of“ buy ”trades from the middle of the 2017 season (including Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler, and Jorge Mateo for Gray), none of the youngsters who gave up on her has come back to bite her in any significant way. UCLA’s Kaprielian product has the potential to do so because of its ancestry, albeit later than the A’s originally hoped for.
Long-time Oakland manager Bob Melvin admitted that the A’s made it easy for Kaprielian when he saw him last month Replacing the injured Jesus Luzardo for the first time in their starting rotation, said, “Now he’s just settled into that role and was really good. If you look at the Swings and Misses [a game high 14], for a guy who doesn’t throw in his upper 90s [he hit 94 mph], he gets a lot of them, which means he got the ball, which means that his slider plays very well with his fastball for right-handers and his move plays very well with his fastball, especially for left-handers.
« He got a chance due to an injury. We weren’t sure what we were going to get from him. And now he’s become a mainstay of our rotation. «
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said: » He showed both secondary playing fields, the slider, this change danced around a bit and good fastball to the edges. Overall he threw the ball pretty well against us. «
Kaprielian handed Rougned Odor a solo homer in the fifth inning, which put Yankees replacement Wandy Peralta in position to win the game after Jameson Taillon (4th ² / ₃ innings, two runs) compared to his previous, disastrous appearance in Philadelphia (one third inning, four runs). But Kemp’s three-run thing in the sixth inning ahead of Peralta put the A back on top, and the Yankees’ line-up after three solid days against the Blue Jays in Buffalo calmed down again and gave Kaprielian his personal milestone.
Speaking of which Quiet: Kaprielian took a walk to the stadium’s warning lane in the early afternoon, a process he called “Feeling Silence,” which he learned from the late NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and used before each start. Then he silenced the Yankees, some of whom he knew from his time in the minor leagues.
His story is more of persistence in the face of injury hurdles than revenge on the Yankees. < Even so, this trade is finally paying off for the A, at a time when the Yankees could use another arm. It's not a development that the Yankees, who still stand out from the crowd, really need right now.
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