When Jonathan Loaisiga landed on the injured list in May for a shoulder impingement, he took with him an unsightly 7.02 ERA. 

It didn’t get any better in his first appearance back after missing nearly two months, as he gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning against the Reds. 

But since then, Loaisiga has looked more like the reliever he was in 2021 — making good on the Yankees’ belief that he could return to that form — posting a 1.76 ERA over his final 31 appearances of the regular season, a critical turnaround as the team dealt with an onslaught of injuries and underperformance around him. 

“The adjustment we’ve made in my mechanics, it had to do with my shoulder, actually,” Loaisiga said Wednesday through an interpreter before Thursday’s ALDS Game 2 was postponed. “We felt that it was lagging behind a little bit, and I was putting a little too much stress on the shoulder. So together with [bullpen coach Mike] Harkey and our pitching coach, [Matt] Blake, we worked on that just to get in a better position that would allow me to be more fluid executing pitches.” 

Now the Yankees need Loaisiga to keep that going — and reverse some of his past postseason results — to help out a battered bullpen. 

Loaisiga was the first man out of the bullpen in Tuesday’s Game 1, relieving Gerrit Cole with a runner on first and one out in the seventh inning while protecting a 4-1 lead. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed a single to Steven Kwan before using an inside 100 mph sinker to get Amed Rosario to ground into an inning-ending double play. 

Jose Ramirez then singled off Loaisiga to lead off the eighth inning before the Yankees turned to Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes to finish off the win. 

In eight career playoff appearances, Loaisiga has given up five earned runs across 6 ¹/₃ innings with eight hits and eight walks. 

But Loaisiga will have to be sharper, especially with the rest of the ALDS potentially being played on four straight days if it goes the distance, putting an extra strain on both teams’ bullpens. 

Since coming off the IL, Loaisiga has pitched back-to-back days eight times. On the second half of those back-to-backs, he has given up two runs on five hits and two walks across 8 ¹/₃ innings. 

Loaisiga has not pitched three straight days in his major league career.