Something is Very Wrong With Luis Severino
I don’t really know what’s going on, but the Luis Severino we know and love has gone away. I don’t know if he’s hurt and pitching through something, but something is off. I understand you don’t have your stuff one game, but Sevy just closed the book on a month of July with a 6.58 ERA. That’s some Sonny Gray shit folks. Today his fastball was hit all over the place by a putrid Royals team. For two innings Severino looked back on track and ready to right the ship. He was playing catch with Romine and dominating…and then he fell apart. His fastball became vulnerable to hitters like Lucas Duda, Adalberto Mondesi (literally a made-up name), and Rosell Herrera. That’s not the guy that was a CY Young favorite a month ago. The most sure thing the Yankees could rely on has turned into a giant question mark and it’s kind of crazy. Not even making it through five innings and giving up six runs to Kansas City is embarrassing. Like I’m half joking here, but is Sonny Gray more reliable than Luis Severino right now? Kidding….kinda. Is this Frankie Borrelli’s fault for slapping him on the ass at the All Star Game?
The Yankees are heading towards another Wild Card Game at this point. Sure there’s time to change that, but the way things are trending with Judge’s injury that looks like the case. Right now who starts that Wild Card Game? Tanaka? Bullpen Game? Is it Severino? There’s a lot of question marks right now after this Severino funk. I’m sure he’ll get it right, but it’s left the fanbase scratching their heads.
Despite Severino’s shitty outing, the offense battled back thanks in part to Giancarlo Stanton and some timely hitting. Gleyber trimmed the deficit to 6-5 in the 7th on a double off the wall, scoring Didi, but was thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple with nobody out. Brutal. I love Gleyber and I can never be mad at him for more than 5 seconds, but that was a terrible mistake. The Yankees tie the game in the 7th if he stays at second. That’s just a fact, and instead the Yankees came up with nothing that inning.
In the next half inning I questioned Aaron Boone’s decision to bring in David Robertson. For starters, Dellin Betances had not pitched since Wednesday so he was obviously available and the 8th his usually his inning. Robertson had been good lately so I can live with Robertson over Dellin. But when you look at the lineup he was facing that inning, three of the first four batters were lefties. We just paid a lot to go get Zach Britton. He’s a lefty. Don’t you think that should have been his inning? Well, Boone went with D-Rob and low and behold he served up a back-breaking three run homer to left handed hitter Brian Goodwin. Game over. Thanks Boone. What are you doing, pal?
The Yankees needed to win all four of these games against the Royals. They had to. A three out of four series win, if they even get that, was unacceptable in my mind. They’re the fucking Royals. You have to sweep if you want to catch Boston. Nope. Another terrible loss. The Yankees were a -480 favorite today and lost by 5 runs. FIVE. That’s why you don’t bet baseball folks. That’s why this team isn’t going to win the AL East.
Also, to make me more angry, here’s the lineup Boone is going with in Game 2.
No Gleyber. No Hicks. Instead we’ve got Shane Robinson and Tyler Wade playing both games of the doubleheader even though the Yanks had the day off yesterday. What the fuck are you doing Boone? Seriously. What the fuck?
P.S. Has John Sterling just lost his vision at this point? His call on Stanton’s line-out on a would-be grand slam should be jail worthy. If I was listening in the car I would have crashed.