Luis Severino has strong debut as Yankees complete sweep of Reds

CINCINNATI — Luis Severino, in the words of one rival scout who typically doesn’t traffic in the superlative, looked “awesome” in his 2023 debut.

The Yankees would categorize this road trip, which contained seemingly a season’s worth of oddities, the same way.

With Severino throwing fire for 4 2⁄3 innings and the offense (which was without a resting Aaron Judge) producing homers by Harrison Bader and Gleyber Torres, the Yankees completed a three-game series sweep with a 4-1 victory over the Reds on Sunday in front of 33,828 at Great American Ball Park.

“Great trip,” Aaron Boone said after the Yankees went 6-1 against Toronto and Cincinnati. They have won 14 of their last 19 to move from 15-15 to 29-20.

Boone wasn’t around to see the vast majority of the contest, as he was ejected in the bottom of the first inning while arguing a run he didn’t believe the Reds deserved after a replay review. He said afterward, “I shouldn’t have gotten kicked out there. My bad,” and added of the call: “In the end, it was probably the right thing.”

Clay Holmes did load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to insert some late drama, but Will Benson bounced back to Holmes to end it.

“I think we learned a lot about ourselves,” Bader, whose two-run homer in the fifth gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, said of a trip that began with the circus-like series in Toronto. “I think we did a really good job of just staying in the pocket, playing our game, staying in our clubhouse and focusing on what we do really well to be successful.”

The Yankees are off Monday before starting a three-game series against the Orioles (31-16) on Tuesday night at the Stadium.

Severino, who started the season on the injured list with a right lat strain, allowed one run, four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. His fastball sat at 97 to 99 mph.

The one run he allowed entailed a dash of controversy. He walked Jonathan India on four pitches to open the bottom of the first inning and struck out Matt McLain swinging at a changeup. Then, appropriate for this trip, the Yankees encountered some strangeness.

Spencer Steer sliced a fly ball toward the rightfield line and Jake Bauers attempted to make a sliding basket catch. He had it momentarily but the ball popped out as he slid into the wall, and when first-base umpire Nestor Ceja emphatically ruled it a foul ball, Bauers understandably did not go after the ball immediately.

The Reds challenged the foul call and it was overturned as replays showed the ball would have landed fair. Steer was placed on second base and India, who slowed up as he headed for third because of the initial foul call, was awarded home.

Replay decisions cannot be argued, but Boone did want an explanation about India’s being awarded home. It is always within the umpire’s discretion to place runners in such situations, but Boone questioned allowing India to score when players from both teams, the runner especially, were under the impression the ball was dead.

“I took exception to that and at least wanted to know the explanation for it and didn’t really get that,” Boone said.

Boone’s third ejection of the season, and second of this trip, ended up merely an entertaining footnote. Bader’s 411-foot homer gave the Yankees the lead for good in the fifth. Torres hit an opposite-field homer in the sixth and Anthony Volpe’s two-out RBI double in the seventh made it 4-1.

Reds starter Hunter Greene, a righthander taken second overall in the 2017 draft, reached 100 mph four times, got 18 swings-and-misses and struck out 10 in seven innings. He allowed four runs, four hits and a walk in an impressive outing, but Severino was even better.

“Great showing,” Boone said. “Not the easiest thing, these 11:30 [a.m.] games, and these guys came out here ready to go.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.