Why Luis Severino, Yankees are downplaying his 3-start slump

by Felix Pantaleón

Yankees ace Luis Severino has allowed 13 runs over 15 innings in his last three outings. That included a stinker on Monday, July 23, 2018 (7/23/18) against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla, when he gave up six earned runs on 11 hits in five innings. Severino fell to 14-3 on the season after the 7-6 loss to the Rays.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It wasn’t a big story when the one and only sure thing in the Yankees‘ rotation went into the All-Star break sitting on consecutive starts that were far worse than we’ve come to expect … three runs over five innings in a win, then four in five in a no-decision.

Now that All-Star righty Luis Severino has followed those disappointing outings with his worst of the season, this should be a big concern, right?

Yankees manager Aaron Boone didn’t think so after watching Severino get lit up for a season-high seven runs, six of them earned, on a career-high 11 hits over five-plus innings Monday night in a 7-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Four of the runs scored on Severino came on two homers, one by rookie first baseman Jake Bauers that turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 lead.

“He was just a little bit off,” Boone said. “I thought the crispness of his stuff was back a little bit from his previous couple of starts, but obviously not quite as sharp as he normally would be.

“He pitched OK with the exception of one costly mistake when Bauers got him with the big one.”

WATCH: Sanchez’s loafing costs Yankees in 7-6 loss

Severino (14-3) still leads the majors in wins, but he’s fallen into his first slump of the year after pitching to a 1.98 ERA and allowing only six homers in 118 1/3 innings over his first 18 starts.

In his last three starts, he’s given up two homers in each while allowing 14 runs, 13 of them earned, on 25 hits over 15 innings, a stretch in which his ERA has shot up to 2.63.

“I was feeling good,” Severino said. “Everything was there. I made a couple mistakes in the middle (of the plate).”

With the game tied in the fifth, Bauers hit a hanging slider over the right-field wall for a three-run homer that put the Yanks in a 4-1 hole.

Then after the Yanks came right back to score two in the sixth that made it 4-3, Rays second baseman Daniel Robertson hit Severino’s first pitch in the bottom of the inning over the right-center wall to ignite a three-run inning that ended with Tampa Bay ahead 7-3.

“Right before the (Bauers) home run, the groundball back at him is maybe a double-play ball if (Severino) doesn’t get his hand on it with (shortstop) Didi (Gregorius) coming there,” Boone said. “A couple balls that set up things made it a rough night for him, but I thought (Severino was) a lot closer (to his old self) than what the results say.”