Jameson Taillon struggles against former team as Pirates down Yankees

PITTSBURGH — In the days before, Jameson Taillon acknowledged to having some emotions about making his return to the mound at PNC Park, his home from the time he was drafted by the Pirates until he was traded to the Yankees before the 2021 season.

And Aaron Boone acknowledged before Tuesday night’s game he didn’t know exactly how the pitcher would react.

“It’s different for everyone,” Boone said of former players facing their former teams for the first time.

It was not good for Taillon.

The righthander, who spent four mostly injury-plagued seasons with the Pirates before being dealt to the Yankees, allowed five runs in 5 1⁄3 up-and-down innings of a 5-2 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 37,773.

“A little weird coming out of the visitor’s side,” Taillon said. “Coming out of the first base dugout was definitely a little weird, but cool to be back. It was a great crowd that came out. They put together a nice game plan against me and played a really solid game.”

Taillon, taken No. 2 overall by Pittsburgh in the 2010 draft, allowed six hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five.

The five runs were Taillon’s second-most allowed this season. The righthander has struggled of late, allowing a combined 21 runs over his last six outings.

“Obviously, it’s concerning, I need to figure it out and make a change. It’s a results-oriented league,” Taillon said. “But at the same time, I feel healthy, I feel like I’m making a lot of quality pitches, but I’m getting burned it seems like every outing on a couple of pitches. I don’t want to go change anything drastic, but it’s probably also time to peel it back and see what’s going on.”

Offensively, the Yankees (58-23), who have lost two straight, were mostly held in check by Pirates lefthander Jose Quintana and three relievers. Quintana, 2-4 but with a 3.33 ERA, allowed one run and six hits over five innings in which he struck out seven.

The Yankees, who lead the majors with 26 come-from-behind wins, went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine against Quintana and a Pirates bullpen that generally has not distinguished itself.

“They started off with a couple home runs that kind of put us in a deficit but, like we’ve done before, we weren’t worried about that and thought we’d come back, said Judge, who was called out on strikes to end the game, one in which he went 1-for-5, extending his current mini-slump to 5-for-28 (.179). “But they were able to hold us down there all the way until the end.”

Taillon (9-2, 3.63) warmed up to a tribute video put on by the Pirates and they even played his warmup song — “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin.

He came out strong, striking out the first two batters of a 1-2-3, 15-pitch first inning.

But the Pirates (33-47) took a 1-0 lead in the second when Daniel Vogelbach led off and ripped a full-count, 96-mph fastball to deep right, his 11th homer.

Pittsburgh made it 4-0 in the fourth on Jack Suwinski’s two-run homer and an RBI double by former Yankee Ben Gamel.

Judge’s two-out, RBI single in the fifth brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who doubled with one out, making it 4-1. The Pirates pushed their lead back to four runs in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Oneil Cruz, their enormous 6-7 shortstop prospect who was recently called up.

Matt Carpenter’s two-out, RBI single in the eighth against Duane Underwood Jr. made it 5-2.

“That was cool,” Taillon said of the welcome mat rolled out by the Pirates’ organization. “I’m not used to having my walk-out song play in a visiting stadium so that was cool. Hopefully I can get a copy of the video they played. I’d like to have that for the rest of my life.”