Luis Severino’s fastball velocity crept back up on Tuesday night, but so did the velocities at which the baseball was leaving opponents’ bats.
The Yankees’ right-hander was hit hard for a third straight start while continuing to struggle with his command, though his own offense covered for him in a 7-6 win over the Mets at Citi Field.
Severino’s second pitch of the night left the yard off the bat of Brandon Nimmo and set the tone for another concerning outing.
He gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits and three walks across 4 ²/₃ innings.
“I didn’t get better,” Severino said. “I need to be a better pitcher. I feel like every time they give me the ball, I’m not helping the team right now. I just need to figure out what’s going on. Hopefully I can do that soon.”
After two strong starts upon coming off the injured list for a strained lat in May, Severino has taken a bit of a nosedive.
Over his past three starts, he has given up 17 runs (16 earned) on 22 hits, seven home runs and six walks across 13 ²/₃ innings while striking out 12.
Still, Aaron Boone came away from Tuesday’s outing singing a different tune than Severino, believing that his pitcher had made some progress he could take with him into his next start.
“Third, fourth, even the fifth inning, he found a little bit of something,” Boone said. “I thought he went through that last time through the order … with that electric Sevy stuff we’re used to seeing.”
Boone called the life on Severino’s fastball “night and day” from his previous two starts when it was lacking, and thought it got better as Tuesday’s outing went on.
The Mets recorded 10 hard-hit balls against Severino — meaning they had exit velocities of 95 mph or higher — including four in the first inning alone.
Severino made things tougher for himself in the second inning by committing a pair of balks, one of them allowing two runs to score on Jeff McNeil’s single, before the Mets made it 5-1 in the third.
But after the Yankees gave him a 6-5 lead in the top of the fourth, Severino had his first clean frame of the night with a shutdown bottom of the fourth.
Then in the fifth, Severino had a man on first with two outs and a season-high 102 pitches under his belt when Boone went to the mound for a visit. He wanted to check on Severino and tell him not to overdo it as he gave him a chance to finish the inning.
Two pitches later, Luis Guillorme singled to left field to tie the game and end Severino’s night on a sour note.
“Need to do a better job putting guys away,” Severino said. “In that last inning, Boone gave me the [chance] of going one more hitter and I didn’t deliver. So I need to get better.”
