Yankees lose to Royals, Luis Severino stinks

Yankees ace Luis Severino gets rocked — again — this time in a 10-5 loss to the Royals at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.

NEW YORK — Remember the grimace on Aaron Judge’s face when a fastball fractured his wrist Thursday?

The Yankees’ Saturday afternoon was even uglier.

Ace Luis Severino was terrible again, they blew chance after chance, and the lowly Royals slapped them with a 10-5 loss at Yankee Stadium.

And they had to shake it off immediately. The defeat was the first half of a day-night doubleheader, thanks to Friday’s rainout.

Severino continued his awful stretch, coughing up six runs in 4 1/3 innings, including a home run. His offense recorded just a hit with eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.

It was their first game since Judge went on the disabled list. He’s not expected to return for three weeks. Gary Sanchez (right groin strain) isn’t expected to return from the DL until then either.

Giancarlo Stanton demolished a two-run homer but fell short in a different big spot.

What it means

The Yankees started the day five games behind the Red Sox in the American League East. Boston wasn’t set to play the Twins until later in the night.

The Yankees are 13-15 since winning four straight games from June 18-21.

The slow comeback

The Yankees had a chance to break it open early. They loaded the bases in the second with no outs. But Tyler Wade, called up taking Aaron Judge’s (fractured wrist) roster spot, drilled the ball right into the ground in front of home plate. The catcher touched home plate for the force out and then tagged Wade, who never left the batter’s box. Then Shane Robinson, starting over Brett Gardner, flew out to left field.

They also loaded the bases in the sixth, only for Stanton to line out to deep right field.

The Yankees didn’t get on the board until their two-run fifth.

Aaron Hicks reached with a two out single. Then Stanton hit one of the most impressive home runs this year at Yankee Stadium, nearly reaching thee top deck in center field over the batter’s eye. That brought the Yankees within four runs.

In the sixth, they got another pair thanks to a Gleyber Torres single (RBI) and an Austin Romine ground-out double play that scored Greg Bird.

The Yankees had a chance to get ahead in the seventh. Didi Gregorius singled off reliever Derek McCarthy, and then Gleyber Torres doubled to right field, scoring Gregorius. The throw home was late. Torres took off from second base but the throw from home to third base beat him by a mile and third base coach Phil Nevin looked distraught watching Torres get thrown out.

Still, the Yankees put runners on the corners but pinch hitter Miguel Andujar struck out swinging to end it.

David Robertson made it worse. In the eighth, Brian Goodwin tanked Robertson’s knee-high fastball into the right-field second deck for three runs, shoving the Yankees back down, 9-5.

Chasen Shreve gave up another run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly.

Bad Sevy

Severino turned in his second straight terrible start.

He gave up eight hits, including a silly two-run, pop-up home run to Lucas Duda that just sailed into the right field short porch. That made it 6-0 Royals and it ended Severino’s night.

The right-hander hasn’t been particularly good in four starts, over which he’s had an 8.84 ERA. Before that, he was having a Cy Young caliber season, posting a 1.98 ERA over his initial 18 starts.

Severino had seemingly had seen his stuff and even his trademark velocity tick down in recent starts. Not the case this time. With Severino’s fastball regularly touching 98 mph, it was his command that to failed him.

He kept the Royals scoreless through the first two innings. In the third, two doubles, a walk and a hit-by-pitch led to two runs. It was Rosell Herrera’s double to right field that brought in Kansas City’s first two runs.

A four-run fifth inning did Severino in. After Adalberto Mondesi hit a leadoff single, Herrera’s ground-rule double to left field moved him to third base. Immediately, Salvador Perez rocked a line-drive single up the middle, scoring Mondesi and Herrera. In the next at-bat, Duda, an ex-Met, homered.

Next

Yankees lefty CC Sabathia (6-4, 3.51 ERA) will face Royals righty Heath Fillmyer (0-1, 2.82 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.