Luis Severino rocked for 7 runs in first as Yankees lose series to Orioles
Yankees pitcher Luis Severino adjusts his hat after giving up three hits to the Baltimore Orioles in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 30, 2023, in Baltimore. Credit: AP/Gail Burton
BALTIMORE — Luis Severino, in the words of one rival scout, still looks “completely lost” on the mound.
And with the Yankees seemingly incapable of helping him, the question is this: How many more times will they send him back out there as a starter?
The answer: With Nestor Cortes returning soon, probably not many more.
Severino’s disastrous season continued Sunday night when he allowed seven runs in a nightmare of a first inning in the Yankees’ 9-3 loss to the Orioles in front of 37,429 at Camden Yards.
“Right now, I feel like the worst pitcher in the game,” a downcast Severino said afterward. “No doubt about it.”
If Severino is not included in some kind of package before Tuesday’s trade deadline — which can’t be ruled out; even with his awful season, there are teams who believe they could turn the 29-year-old around — he appears destined to be bullpen-bound sooner rather than later.
Severino, who needed 38 pitches to get through a first inning in which the Orioles sent 11 to the plate, allowed a season-high nine earned runs and 10 hits (tying a season high) in 3 1⁄3 innings. He fell to 2-5 with a 7.49 ERA and a 1.84 WHIP, having allowed 82 hits and 24 walks in 57 2⁄3 innings.
Severino gave up at least seven earned runs for the third time in five July starts and the fourth time in 12 starts. His totals in those four games: 32 runs (30 earned) and 38 hits in 14 innings.
In his last 10 starts, despite two very good ones, he has an 8.94 ERA and a 2.09 WHIP, having allowed 50 runs (46 earned), 77 hits and 20 walks in 46 1⁄3 innings.
“I know the kind of pitcher that I am,” he said. “I know I can go out there and have good outings, but right now, nothing that I do is working . . . I’ll listen to suggestions. I’m willing to get better, I want to get better, but right now [nothing] that I do is working.”
With Aaron Judge out of the lineup as the club manages his workload, the Yankees struck out a season-high 18 times, five by Anthony Rizzo, who since his 4-for-4 game on July 23 is 2-for-21. In 22 July games, he’s hitting .163 (14-for-86).
“I’m not playing well,” he said. “It’s frustrating on a personal level, and just being a teammate, you want to do everything you can to help this team win. You take it personal and you know you should be producing better than I am. At the end of the day, it makes you scratch your head a lot.”
After losing two of three games in the series, the Yankees (55-50) fell nine games behind the AL East-leading Orioles (64-41) and remained 3 1⁄2 games behind the Blue Jays and Astros, who are tied for the final two wild-card spots.
The Yankees are one game behind the Red Sox, a half-game ahead of the Angels and a game ahead of the Mariners in the wild-card race.
The Yankees did produce nine hits, with Jake Bauers contributing a solo homer and a two-out RBI double and Harrison Bader adding two hits and a sacrifice fly. But not even Judge — who went 3-for-5 with a homer Saturday after walking three times in his return on Friday — could have saved them because of the hole Severino dug.
The first six Orioles reached base, with the big blows delivered by Ryan O’Hearn, whose two-run double made it 3-0, and Adam Frazier, whose three-run homer made it 6-0.
Adley Rutschman, who led off the inning with a single, singled home a run his second time up in the frame to make it 7-0.
“It was terrible,” Severino said. “Nothing was working.”
He wound up with three strikeouts in the first — but four pitches into the inning, the Orioles had runners at first and third. Eleven pitches in, they had a three-run lead.
The Orioles won seven of 13 games to take the season series against the Yankees, the first time Baltimore has done that since 2016.
Next up for the Yankees? A seven-game homestand that starts Monday against one of the teams ahead of them, the Rays, followed by their No. 1 nemesis of the last decade, the Astros.
“This is a tough one, but nothing stops. We have to get back on the horse tomorrow,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, Tampa’s coming in and we have to be ready to go, obviously with the urgency of where we’re at in the standings.”
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.
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