Luis Severino encouraged after 15-pitch simulated game on Yankee Stadium mound
Yankees pitcher Luis Severino throws in the outfield before a game against the Rockies at Yankee Stadium on July 21. Credit: Brad Penner
After the first bullpen session of his rehab on Aug. 9, Luis Severino called it “perfect.”
The righthander, out since the start of the season with right rotator cuff inflammation and a subsequent lat strain suffered while rehabbing, was no less enthusiastic late Sunday morning after a 15-pitch simulated game from the Yankee Stadium mound.
“I hadn’t been on a real mound this year. It felt really good,” Severino said. “The fastball’s there, the breaking pitches, too. I feel I’m on the right track.”
He was slated to head to Tampa on Sunday night and will throw another simulated game at some point this week. If there are no setbacks, he will start a rehab assignment with high Class A Tampa or Double-A Trenton.
Aaron Boone said no timetable for Severino’s return to the active roster has been established, but he sounded as enthusiastic as the pitcher after watching Sunday’s simulated game.
“Continue to be really encouraged and you can just tell in talking to Sevy just how good he feels,” Boone said. “This has been building now for a while now where he’s starting to really gain some confidence in his mind about being sound, being sharp, being healthy. Today getting out there facing hitters was big, and I thought overall, he looked really sharp.”
Estrada placed on IL
Rookie Thairo Estrada (right hamstring strain) became the 28th Yankee to hit the injured list. Boone said Estrada “felt a little tweak” in the hamstring in the seventh inning Saturday while running to first on a groundout to short.
“He came in this morning and it was pretty tight,” Boone said.
Tyler Wade was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace Estrada.
Extra bases
Boone said Luke Voit will start a rehab assignment Friday with Scranton and likely will be activated after the upcoming three-city trip to the West Coast . . . The Yankees have not been shut out in 208 straight games, tied for the third-longest such streak in MLB history. The record is 308 games, set by the Yankees from Aug. 3, 1931, to Aug. 2, 1933.
