Aaron Boone said he had three good choices when identifying the starter for Wednesday night’s AL wild-card game against the A’s at Yankee Stadium.
After hearing from general manager Brian Cashman, pitching coach Larry Rothschild and the analytic arm of the front office during the weekend in Boston, Boone went with Luis Severino to start the biggest game of the year.
J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka were the other options, but the Yankees manager ignored Severino’s sluggish second half with the hope that the right-hander has his electric fastball and slider working.
“I think he’s equipped in so many ways to handle this, and perhaps most importantly, he’s equipped with amazing stuff and the ability to dominate big-league hitters because he’s such a talented pitcher,’’ Boone said of Severino, who went 19-8 with a 3.39 ERA in a staff-leading 32 starts. “I can’t wait to see him go do it.’’
Should the 24-year-old Severino duplicate last year’s wild-card appearance — when he gave up three runs in the first inning, got one out and was hooked by Joe Girardi — Boone is going to be smothered by the almighty second-guess.
Severino rebounded from that disaster to make three more postseason starts and pitched better. He also said getting smacked by the Twins served as a lesson.
“Maybe too excited, trying to do too much,” Severino said of last year’s disastrous outing that the Yankees overcame. “The good thing is we won that game. I think that was the main thing, I was too excited. It was a good experience. Now I’ll take that [Wednesday] and try to treat that game like a regular game.”
From March 29 to July 7, Severino’s numbers were good enough to make him an All-Star and a possible AL Cy Young winner. In 19 games, he went 14-2 with a 2.12 ERA, and the Yankees won 17 of them. Then there was a 13-game stretch from July 12 to Sept. 25 in which he went 5-6 with a 5.69 ERA. And that includes his final three outings, in which he went 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA.
“He is our guy, he should be throwing this game,” right fielder Aaron Judge said of Severino, who will be working on seven days rest. He was 3-2 with a 3.10 ERA in five starts with six or more days’ rest this year.
The A’s are starting right-handed reliever Liam Hendriks.
Severino’s two outings against the A’s were vastly different. On May 13 at Yankee Stadium, he beat them 6-2 by allowing one run and five hits in six innings. Severino’s worst outing of the season surfaced on Sept. 5 in Oakland, where he allowed five earned runs and six hits in 2 ²/₃ innings of an 8-2 loss lowlighted by catcher Gary Sanchez and Severino having trouble getting together on signs that resulted in two passed balls and two wild pitches.
“Communication, we have been doing a lot of that,” said Sanchez, who will be behind the plate Wednesday despite a major league-leading 18 passed balls and a .186 batting average.
Severino and Sanchez worked together in the pitcher’s final three starts without issues and Severino pitched well.
“Sevy has done a great job all year, and there is no doubt in my mind that [Wednesday] he is going to be able to get the job done,” Sanchez said.
He better, because Boone had two other choices to start a game following a 100-win regular season that won’t matter a bit if the Yankees don’t advance to the ALDS and face the Red Sox.
“We have had a great season to this point,” Boone said. “But that’s now behind us and the real season starts now. Our guys will be ready.”
Giancarlo Stanton echoed Boone’s feelings.
“That season is over, that’s already in the past even though it’s a couple of days ago. Now it’s the postseason,’’ said Stanton, who will get his first taste of the postseason. “Now it’s a brand-new start and we’ve just got to show up.”
