This week, the Yankees played a four-game series against the Orioles. Considering that the latter are a power within the division, we agree that the Bombardiers needed to win the series to not let them gain ground.
And after two games, it smelled good. Harrison Bader and Gleyber Torres propelled the Yankees to victory in the first two games, but on Wednesday a poor decision by Aaron Boone hurt the club.
My colleague Sébastien Berrouard had a lot to say on the subject yesterday morning.
Last night, that said, it was another member of the Yankees who was talked about for the wrong reasons: Luis Severino.
For much of his career, Sevy was an excellent pitcher, but health problems did not spare him. And this year, even if he had to start his season a little later, his body has been holding up for a few weeks.
The only problem is that despite being healthy, it’s not working on the mound for him this year. Yesterday, he allowed no less than seven earned runs, in just 2.2 innings of work.
It’s not because of constant walks (in fact, it’s not too worse at this level), but simply the fact that his shots have no bite. Hitters do what they want with his offerings, as we saw yesterday when the Orioles hit 10 hits against him.
For a team hoping to have Severino among its big starting pitchers, that’s not ideal.
In 42.2 innings pitched this season, Severino is now at 40 runs allowed. Last year, he gave up just 37 in his 102 innings.
To replace him, the Yankees sent Albert Abreu to the mound… which did even worse. In 0.2 innings of work, he walked three, four hits and six (!) earned runs.
The Orioles’ turn at bat in the fourth inning wasn’t even over and they were up 13-0.
The rest of the game was pretty boring (Deivi Garcia threw a few good innings on her return to the Majors and the Orioles pitchers made short work of the Yankees offense). That said, in the eighth inning, Brandon Hyde was sent off while his club was leading 14-0.
The reason? He didn’t like that Wandy Peralta hit the young Colton Cowser (although it seemed rather accidental).
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a position player, came in to pitch in the ninth inning (it was the fourth time this season he pitched for the Yankees). Billy McKinney drove in in the ninth to avoid the shutout, but the Orioles destroyed the Yankees 14-1 last night on a whopping 20 hits.
Gunnar Henderson (four hits, two homers and five RBIs in seven at-bats) and Ryan O’Hearn (three hits, a double, a walk and four RBIs in four at-bats) led the charge for visitors.
The Yankees will begin a three-game series against the Cubs tonight, and for the occasion, we will watch the very first start of Carlos Rodon in the uniform of the Yankees.
Let’s hope he does better than Severino, whose Bobblehead party will be tomorrow (what bad timing, though).
