Yankees’ Jameson Taillon picks up 10th victory in bounce-back win

The Yankees will have one 10-game winner on their pitching staff heading into the All-Star break, even if Jameson Taillon won’t be one of their two starters headed to the midseason showcase in Los Angeles to represent MLB’s winningest team.

Wins, of course, no longer are deemed among the most primary statistics to determine a pitcher’s value, but Taillon still emerged from a four-start slump with six innings of one-run ball to improve to 10-2 after the Yankees’ 14-1 trouncing of the Red Sox on Saturday night at the Stadium.

“I think me and the team probably [needed that],” said Taillon, who was supported by two homers apiece from Matt Carpenter and MLB leader Aaron Judge. “The past week has been a bit of a challenge. We’ve played a lot of close, tough games. Obviously, Boston we play them close all the time.

“So it was nice to have a relaxing win. And for me, the past month hasn’t been easy, but I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working and doing the right thing and hopefully the results keep coming.”

Taillon was tagged for a solo homer by Rafael Devers in the first inning, the All-Star third baseman’s fifth in seven games against the Yankees this season.

Xander Bogaerts followed with a single to left, but Taillon retired the final 17 batters he faced to carry a 6-1 lead through the sixth. The righty struck out the side in order in the second inning and finished his night with five punch-outs and zero walks before Ryan Weber replaced him to start the seventh inning with the Yankees up 10-1.

“I was pretty upset coming off the mound there [in the first]. That’s a pitch I know better than to leave in that spot,” Taillon said. “But for us to answer with four runs [in the first], that kind of set the tone for the rest of the game.”

The 30-year-old Taillon was 6-1 with a 2.30 ERA through his 10th start of the season on June 2, but he’d been knocked around for 20 earned runs in 21 innings over his previous four outings, including an 11-6 loss to the Red Sox last weekend at Fenway Park.

While Nestor Cortes and Gerrit Cole, who will start Sunday against Boston, will represent the Yankees’ rotation at the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Los Angeles, Taillon will head into the break with a 10-2 record and a 3.86 overall ERA in 100 ¹/₃ innings over 18 starts. He worked 144 ¹/₃ innings last season in his first full season following Tommy John surgery — the second of his career — while with the Pirates in 2019.

“I thought he executed really well and had a really good presence on both sides of the plate and mixed his pitches really well,” manager Aaron Boone said of Taillon’s outing. “It’s in line with what we’ve been seeing over the last month, just the last month there were a handful of mistakes that killed him. … A really strong performance by him.”