Acevedo back on bump after one day with Yanks

TRENTON » Domingo Acevedo was back in his familiar No. 46 for Thunder fans on Monday night.

He’d much rather be wearing the pinstriped No. 70 he donned on Saturday when he joined the Yankees for a Subway Series game against the Mets.

“He was still happy,” Thunder manager Jay Bell said prior to Acevedo’s start Monday against Hartford at Arm & Hammer Park. “It was pretty exciting for him. They had the four-run lead and I was kind of pulling for them to get a couple more so he could get in the game.”

By now you know the story.

Bell and pitching coach Tim Norton knocked on Acevedo’s hotel room door at 11 p.m. on Friday to tell him he was going up and the 6-foot-7 pitcher shed a few tears on the phone with his mother a few minutes later.

Acevedo, who is on the 40-man roster, didn’t get in the game Saturday. He was there as cover if Sonny Gray got into any early trouble and was optioned back to the Thunder that night.

Still, Bell believes the 24-year-old, ranked as the Yankees’ No. 7 prospect, should feel even more confident about his ability moving forward.

“The New York Yankees feel like he’s ready to get to the big leagues and compete,” Bell said. “Sometimes as a minor leaguer, we tend to feel like we’re not really sure if we’re ready or not. We’re not sure what the organization feels about us, and whenever you get a call like that, it’s a really positive thing.”

Acevedo is 2-2 with a 2.84 ERA in 11 games (eight starts) for the Thunder. He missed more than a month with a blister early in the season that seemed to cause a drop in his velocity.

Since he returned on May 28, his velocity is back in the mid-to-high 90s and he’s worked six innings in each of his last two starts.

Bell said Dillon Tate is scheduled to come off the disabled list and start Tuesday night.

Tate hasn’t pitched since July 5 after he suffered a strained quad in the final series before the All-Star break.

Ranked as the Yankees’ No. 9 prospect, the 24-yearold righty is 5-2 with a 3.38 ERA in 15 starts. He has 75 strikeouts against 25 walks in 82 2/3 innings, which is 2/3 of an inning away from matching his career high.

“It’s going to be nice to have him back in the rotation,” Bell said.

Yet another player with local ties is joining the Thunder roster.

First baseman Brandon Wagner, a Princeton native who played his high school baseball at Immaculata, was promoted from HighA Tampa.

A sixth-round pick in 2015 out of Howard JC, Wagner, 22, slashed .270/.376/.510 with a Florida State League-leading 20 HR and 57 RBIs.

Wagner plays primarily at first base, although he can move to third and has lined up in the outfield on occasion.

Bell said he’s likely to play first and DH.

“They want us to expand his horizons a little bit,” Bell said. “I don’t know if he profiles specifically at first base even though he has some big power numbers this year . ... He’s here to play, and it will be fun to get in the lineup because as well as he’s done in Tampa, he’s deserving of the move.”