VIDEO: Jonathan Loaisiga impresses in Yankees debut

The Johnny Lasagna Era is off to a good start.

On Friday night, the Yankees turned to rookie right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga to fill a gap in their rotation, and wow, did he deliver. The 23-year-old tossed five innings of shutout ball, striking out six in the process. He even held the Rays hitless through the first 3.1 innings.

Loaisiga’s stuff, however, proved more impressive than the results. That’s saying something considering how well he pitched! He painted the black all night with a filthy 97 mph fastball. His slider looked more like a slurve, but it generated a good amount of whiffs. The real standout pitch of the night, however, was the changeup. Loaisiga tossed a circle-change that just fell out of the zone.

He picked up his first career strikeout on that aforementioned slurve.

It’s hard not to like what you see from the kid.

We can’t say for sure what the future holds for Loaisiga, but he sure made a great first impression. We heard for weeks about how he has dynamite stuff, and now we saw it with our own eyes. He owns an electric arsenal and every pitch was on display tonight. That was special.

What did you think of Loaisiga’s debut? Let us know in the comment section!