It was early in Friday night’s game, Kevin Cash said — after the first or second inning — when he turned to his bench coach, Charlie Montoyo, and dropped the comparison of a lifetime on Jonathan Loaisiga.
“[I] said he looked like a young Mariano Rivera,” the Rays manager said, after Loaisiga won his major league debut to the tune of 5-0 at Yankee Stadium.
All righty, then. Remember when every Yankees prospect, at a time when there weren’t many, arrived with great hype and hope and didn’t come close to meeting expectations? The pinstriped world has flipped: The Yankees run out so many intriguing youngsters that some, like Loaisiga, can sneak up on you and, apparently, motivate opposing managers to evoke future Hall of Famers.