What now?
Luis Severino had hinted and teased that he was headed back toward his ace’s throne, away from the malaise that characterized his July. Then Monday night happened.
Against the Mets, of all teams, Severino again fell victim to the gopher ball. He again raised concerns about his reliability as the Yankees continued further down their path toward the do-or-die American League wild-card game on Oct. 3.
What now? The Yankees’ best course of action is to keep rolling Severino out there and hoping he figures it out.
“I’m not tired. I’m definitely not tired,” Severino said, after he suffered an 8-5 loss to the Mets in the 2018 Subway Series finale at Yankee Stadium. “I just need to keep working. I’ve been through this in the past and together with [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild], see what’s going on and try to fix it.”
“I don’t think this is a situation where we’re planning on skipping anything right now,” Aaron Boone said.
Luis SeverinoPaul J. BereswillMets ace Jacob deGrom easily outpitched his Yankees counterpart, scattering three runs (two earned) over 6 ²/₃ innings and striking out 12, to drop Boone’s bunch to 10 games behind the dormant Red Sox in the American League East. Severino lasted only four innings, his briefest work shift of the season, as he gave up four runs and seven hits, including two homers, and walked one while striking out six.
He now has a 7.84 ERA in his past six starts, and he has permitted at least one homer in his past seven starts, totaling 12 in that stretch over 36 innings.
“I think I keep doing the same mistakes over and over,” Severino said. “I’m missing with my fastball. Last time, the same thing happened. … I need to be in more control.”
Said Yankees catcher Austin Romine: “I think the life is on his fastball. I think he could locate the slider a little more. … But I’m not seeing too many different things, whether it’s mechanical or anything else.”
OK, then. All involved were seeing better things his prior two starts; he hung in for 5 ²/₃ innings against the scalding Red Sox on Aug. 3 at Fenway Park and then threw seven innings to defeat the terrible White Sox on Aug. 8 at Guaranteed Rate Field (worst ballpark name ever). Which is why this effort, against the Mets’ underwhelming group, felt like such a downer to everyone.
“The last couple of outings, I feel like I’ve seen that sign where he’s getting that life back on both his fastball and his slider,” Boone said. “I didn’t see that life as much today, even though we saw some late, good velocity numbers.”
Boone and the Yankees should stick with their plan for the status quo, as long as Severino doesn’t change course and complain of a physical issue, and start Severino on Saturday against the Blue Jays.
First of all, the Yankees already lost one starter on Monday when
with inflammation in his chronically bothersome right knee. The Yankees didn’t mind doing this because two days off next week (Monday and Thursday) mean that Sabathia can rest for 10 days and miss only one start before rejoining the starting rotation. To take both Sabathia and Severino out of the rotation at once would be challenging, even with reinforcements J.A. Happ and Lance Lynn pitching well.
Second of all, how badly did Severino really pitch on Monday night? Consider the distances of the two homers, courtesy of MLB’s Statcast: Amed Rosario’s leadoff shot in the first inning traveled an estimated 378 feet. And after the Yankees knotted the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the third, veteran Jose Bautista broke the tie in the fourth with a modest flyball that traveled 353 feet into the seats. These were not bombs. When you throw in Severino’s strikeout-to-walk ratio, it doesn’t call for drastic measures.
“We’ve got to help him get to the bottom of it,” Boone said. “Physically, I think he’s sound, but we’ve got to get this righted. And that’s on all of us, because he’s so important. Obviously he’s so dynamic when he’s right.”
If he can’t get right, then the Yankees’ October might not be much longer than Severino’s effort on Monday.
