What has Yankees’ Luis Severino concerned heading into Red Sox series

The Yankees trail the first-place Boston Red Sox by 5 1/2 games in the American League East heading into a four-game series at Fenway Park that begins Thursday, August 2, 2018 (8/2/18). Yankees ace Luis Severino will be on the mound on Friday night for the second game of the series.

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NEW YORK — An unexpected month of struggles hasn’t shaken Yankees ace Luis Severino’s confidence at all.

Either has being on an American League power that has been a second-place ballclub every day since July 2 despite avoiding a slump.

There are a couple things that have the All-Star righty feeling a little unsettled heading into another Yankees-Red Sox showdown series, this one a four-gamer at Fenway Park that begins Thursday night.

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For starters, four poor starts in a row led to Severino studying video this week of his great first half, and the result of that was he couldn’t detect any difference other than more mistake pitches.

Another thing that has Severino a touch concerned is how his Yankees are 30 games over .500 with a 68-38 record that is second best in baseball, yet they’ve lost a lot of ground to the first-place Red Sox in the American League East standings over the last month, going from tied to 5 1/2 games back.

“Right now, the Red Sox are the best team in baseball,” Severino told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday before the Yankees’ 7-5 home loss to the Baltimore Orioles. “They’re winning almost every day.

“We don’t need to focus on how many games they’re winning. We need to focus on how many games we’re winning. We’ve won a lot of games. I’ve got to think if we keep playing like we have, at the end of the year something good is going to happen for us.”

That something good just might be setting for a second consecutive postseason berth as host to the AL Wild Card Game if the Red Sox don’t cool off.

The Yankees have played well against Boston so far this season, winning five of nine games, but they lost two of three in their first visit to Fenway back in April, and that’s where seven of the final 10 meetings will be played.

“We need to go in there and win this series,” Severino said. “A split isn’t good enough. We need to win the series. We need to win every series we play with them.”

Severino knows he has to do his part Friday night when he faces the Red Sox for the fourth time this season. He didn’t fare well at Fenway in April when he allowed five runs over five innings in an 14-1 Red Sox romp, but he gave up just two combined runs over 12 2/3 innings in his two starts against Boston at Yankee Stadium, both Yankees victories.

He’ll go into his weekend assignment leading the AL with 14 wins and with a 2.94 ERA that is eighth best in the league, but he has pitched to an 8.84 ERA over his last four starts after being at 1.98 in his first 18.

In his last start, Severino gave up six runs over a season-low 4 1/3 innings in a loss to Kansas City last Sunday in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Five days earlier, he allowed a season-high seven runs, six of them earned, over five innings in a loss at Tampa Bay.

“I still feel good,” Severino said. “I watched a little film this week, but I didn’t see anything different from the first half, so I think it was just a few bad starts. That’s what I’m hoping.

“I’ve been through more than this before, so I’ll figure it out. And we will, too. The Red Sox’ lead on us isn’t that much. We still can catch them, but we need to beat them when we play them. That’s the main thing.” 

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.