BALTIMORE — Coming into the season, Luis Severino was one of the big question marks the Yankees had. The right-hander had been so limited by injuries over the past three years, the Bombers couldn’t know what to expect. Monday night, Severino answered the question yet again. He pitched six, one-hit innings as the Yankees beat the Orioles 6-2 at Camden Yards.
The Yankees (26-9) have won two straight, six of their last seven and 21 of their last 25. They maintained the best record in baseball.
Jose Trevino ripped a three-run home run in the top of the fourth to give the Yankees the winning runs. It was the catcher’s first home run of the season and the first homer by a Yankee catcher this season. It was Trevino’s first home run since Oct. 1, 2021 and the 10th of his career. Josh Donaldson hit his fifth of the season in the top of the ninth, his third in the last five games. Anthony Rizzo followed with his 10th and first since April 29. That was also the last time the Yankees hit back-to-back homers.
In the third, Giancarlo Stanton doubled on a line drive to left field, allowing Rizzo to score. Stanton, whose “double” went 387 feet to the new left field, was thrown out trying to stretch to third. The left-field wall was moved back before this season and goes from 333 at the foul pole to 398 in left-center just before the bullpens. Stanton’s double would have been a homer with the old dimensions.
Severino held the Orioles to one run on one hit over six innings of work. He allowed an Anthony Santander home run in the fourth inning. He walked two and struck out seven. Aroldis Chapman gave up the Orioles’ other run, another homer to Santander.
Severino worked out of early trouble when Joey Gallo missed on Cedric Mullins’ fly ball to left for a three-base error. Severino walked Trey Mancini to put runners on the corners, but got a big double play from Gleyber Torres and then got a ground ball out to end the threat.
Severino pitched just 27.2 innings from 2019 to 2021 because of injuries. He had a torn lat in 2019 and then a torn ulnar collateral ligament in 2020 that forced him to have Tommy John surgery. Coming into this season, even though he had pitched four innings at the end of 2021 and 1.1 in the Wild Card Game, there were concerns about how deep the righty could go into the season.
“Honestly, I haven’t heard a number uttered. So I would say that that remains very fluid,” Boone said of an innings limit for Severino. “Like we picked a spot when we had the rain outs we kind of slotted him back. I could see us doing that throughout the summer assuming everything continues to go well when you get a day off …. maybe just slide him back. Maybe pick a spot where we go short in an outing if we’re set up with an off day and bullpen wise.
“So, no hard and fast [limit] like we’re not going over this number. We’ll just kind of monitor and as best we can gauge with where he’s at as his season unfolds, but we’re encouraged with what we’ve seen so far.”
The way that Severino has pitched makes it easy to forget that he is coming off of basically three lost seasons. He’s thrown 34. 2 innings in seven starts, probably a quarter of the way through his season. Pitching coach Matt Blake said in spring training that they were using 2021 Jameson Taillon (who was coming off his second Tommy John) and Corey Kluber (who was coming off pitching just one inning in 2020 because of a shoulder injury) as guides.
“I’ve been really impressed with his pitchability and adjustability on the mound. He’s had a couple of outings, even recently where it hasn’t just been smooth sailing and easy going, yet he’s kind of figured it out on the fly and kind of had that experience, pitchability thing, and that’s been really good to see,” Boone said. “Coupled with we’re seeing Luis-type stuff come out which has been encouraging. So we’re excited where he’s at, psyched to see him go out there and continue to build on a season.”
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