Bullpen earns Yankees doubleheader split after Luis Severino gets pounded in Game 1

ST. LOUIS — Luis Severino did in the Yankees in Game 1.

Then a bullpen that has bailed out the Yankees pretty much all season saved them from what would have been an embarrassing sweep in Game 2.

After Severino turned in one of the worst outings of his career in an 11-4 loss to the Cardinals in the opener of Saturday’s split doubleheader at Busch Stadium, the bullpen came through in a 6-2 victory in the nightcap.

The Yankees (46-37) went the “bullpen game” route in the second game. After Ian Hamilton gave up a run in the first inning, Ron Marinaccio, Michael King, Wandy Peralta, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes combined to allow one run the rest of the way.

“They all love the competition and are super-competitive and complement one another really well,’’ Aaron Boone said. “I think that’s one thing that stands out, has all year, about these guys is they all have different strengths. They’ve been getting the job done for the most part all year.”

King, who still has dreams of being a big-league starter someday, was the star of Game 2. With a run already home in the third, he replaced Marinaccio with the bases loaded and two outs and escaped with a groundout to preserve a 3-2 lead.

King said he likes coming into that kind of situation: “Oh, yeah. Tommy was the one who taught me this as a reliever — the thing you should pride yourself the most on is inherited runners . . . I think that’s a main part of our bullpen [mentality] so I love coming into those situations.”

That was the start of a brilliant 3 1⁄3 innings of scoreless ball in which he allowed one hit and struck out two. Peralta pitched a scoreless seventh, Kahnle did the same in the eighth and Holmes matched them in the ninth for his 10th save in 12 chances.

“Bullpen days are weird, but our guys, we feel pretty good about them,’’ Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “The early lead was big, and once we got that lead, we knew our bullpen was going to get the job done.”

Said Harrison Bader: “We kind of talked as we were coming into the clubhouse and we gave the belt [the player-awarded belt presented to the star of the game after wins] tonight to the entire bullpen because they’ve just been throwing up zeros left and right. They’ve just been doing their job incredibly well. To give them some love as a unit was definitely special.”

The Yankees did all of their damage early. Former Cardinal Bader, who received a standing ovation before coming to bat with the bases loaded in the first — he doffed his cap and touched his heart in appreciation — hit a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. After Lars Nootbar tied it in the bottom half with a home run off Hamilton, the Yankees scored twice in the second on an RBI triple by Anthony Volpe and a sacrifice fly by DJ LeMahieu.

The Yankees made it 6-2 in the ninth. After a one-out walk to Kiner-Falefa and a single by Volpe that put runners at the corners, a safety-squeeze bunt by Jose Trevino plated Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres singled home two more runs.

The afternoon game was a train wreck by Severino.

He had been flat-out dominant in his previous start, throwing six scoreless innings against the powerful Rangers in what arguably was his best outing of the season, but he followed that up with the polar opposite.  

Missing few barrels during four-plus forgettable innings in which plenty of loud outs were mixed in with a flurry of hits, Severino took it on the chin.

“I’m not doing my job,” he said. “This whole year has been concerning to me. I want to be able to go out there and help my team, and it’s frustrating I can’t do that right now.”

Severino, who scattered five hits in the Yankees’ 1-0 victory over Texas the previous Saturday, allowed nine runs (seven earned) and nine hits in four innings-plus. The righthander fell to 1-3 with a 6.30 ERA.

Boone pulled the plug with two on and none out in the fifth, a four-run inning in which the Cardinals took an 11-0 lead.

“Just overall, not as sharp,” Boone said. “There’s a lot of things in that should get him back on line. He’s healthy, the fastball’s there. We just have to get him more consistent with command and just crispness of his stuff outing after outing.”

With the score 11-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, the game was delayed 2 hours, 19 minutes by a dousing thunderstorm that included wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph. After the Yankees batted in the eighth, there was another rain delay, this one lasting 18 minutes. It again began to pour as the Yankees scored three garbage-time runs in the ninth, two on Jake Bauers’ homer.

Third baseman Josh Donaldson, who pitched in high school and a bit in college, was the Yankees’ fifth pitcher of the afternoon. He retired the Cardinals in order in an 11-pitch eighth.

The Yankees were shut down by Jack Flaherty and two relievers and were outhit 12-10. Flaherty, who came in 4-5 with a 4.95 ERA, allowed four hits and two walks in six innings. The righthander struck out four.

The Cardinals scored five runs in the third, two in the fourth and four in the fifth to take the 11-0 lead. “Not sure,” Severino said of his difficulty finding consistency with his off-speed pitches, his slider in particular, since coming off the injured list on May 21. “I thought today was going to be a really good outing, I felt really good . . . I don’t think they had [much] good contact against the fastball, but they were on the breaking stuff.”

The Cardinals sent 10 to the plate in the third. Tommy Edman and Andrew Knizner, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, led off with singles. Bauers made a running catch of Lars Nootbar’s drive into the leftfield corner, but Paul Goldschmidt drove a slider just over the wall in right-center for his 15th homer and a 3-0 lead. RBI singles by Alec Burleson and Paul DeJong made it 5-0.

Nootbar doubled with one out in the fourth and, after Goldschmidt struck out swinging at a 96-mph fastball, Nolan Gorman teed off on a first-pitch, 95-mph fastball and hit it 415 feet to right for his 16th homer and a 7-0 lead.

Severino allowed a leadoff double by Burleson in the fifth and walked DeJong. That ended his afternoon as Boone replaced him with lefty Matt Krook. He allowed an RBI single by Edman and a two-run double by Knizner, and Goldschmidt’s sacrifice fly made it 11-0.

“Right now I’m at my worst moment,” Severino said. “I can’t make excuses. I just need to figure out a way to be consistent and get people out.”

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.