Yankees crushed by Astros as Luis Severino’s brutal season solely will get worse

The self-described “worst pitcher in the game” didn’t embarrass himself Friday evening, though he flirted with doing so.

That was the nicest factor that might be mentioned about Luis Severino’s newest non-competitive outing.

Any momentum the Yankees had after consecutive wins was snuffed out after Severino was touched up for 3 first-inning runs simply 5 days after he allowed seven runs within the first inning to the Orioles.

“I’m not going to lie, each time I hand over a homer or a run within the first inning, [I think] ‘Jesus Christ, what am I doing?’ ” Severino mentioned after the Yankees’ lopsided 7-3 loss to the Astros in The Bronx. “I begin completely different stuff. Is that this mechanical, is that this tipping?”

The offense produced three solo homers on an in any other case quiet evening because the Yankees fell again to three ¹/₂ video games behind the Blue Jays for the ultimate American League wild-card spot.

After Severino didn’t report an out within the fifth inning for the fourth time in six begins this season and the Yankees fell to 3-8 in his final 11 outings, supervisor Aaron Boone wouldn’t assure the right-hander would make one other begin, saying that “the whole lot is on the desk.”

Severino signaled that he’s open to the opportunity of going to the bullpen if that’s what Boone and the Yankees determine is greatest for the workforce.

Odds are, Severino would already be out of the rotation had Domingo German not been positioned on the restricted listing after voluntarily submitting to inpatient therapy for alcohol abuse.

“No matter we do, it’s making an attempt to get him to seek out that consistency,” Boone mentioned of Severino. “It’s execution, and being within the middle of the plate and being in scorching zones an excessive amount of. I don’t care how good you might be. This degree, they’re going to make you pay for that.”

Severino, who fell to 2-6, hoped August can be kinder to him than July, when he pitched to an astronomical 11.22 ERA.

Nevertheless it was extra of the identical Friday. He had poor command, his fastball was tattooed and he appeared like a pitcher with none confidence.

He was near escaping the primary inning unscathed, however he walked Kyle Tucker with two outs and served up an opposite-field, three-run homer to Yainer Diaz that put the Yankees in a deep gap.

Behind 2-1 within the depend, he threw a fastball that obtained an excessive amount of of the plate and Diaz took care of the remaining.

“It was not a horrible pitch, however it was not the pitch we had been searching for,” Severino mentioned.

Severino appeared on the sting of an entire collapse after he forcing in a run by hitting Alex Bregman with a 3-2 pitch within the second inning. He had thrown 17 balls in 34 pitches, he was listening to boos and Albert Abreu was warming up within the bullpen. However Severino dug deep to strike out Yordan Alvarez and retire Tucker on a lineout to left.

These two outs at the least let him maintain the Yankees inside putting distance, and he adopted them up with zeroes within the third and fourth innings.

Alvarez obtained to Severino within the fifth, taking a low and away slider over the left-center area wall for his twentieth homer of the season.

That ended Severino’s evening to extra boos and together with his ERA a sky-high 7.74.

That will be the very best in baseball by a substantial margin, however Severino doesn’t qualify as a result of he has solely thrown 61 ²/₃ innings after he missed the primary two months of the season because of a strained lat muscle.

The best mark by an eligible pitcher at present belongs to Lance Lynn with a 6.32 ERA.

“I’m having a troublesome time getting individuals out,” he mentioned.

Jake Bauers obtained the Yankees on the board within the third inning together with his tenth homer of the season, which bounced off the left-field foul pole.

That they had almost plated two runs within the first, however Jake Meyers robbed Billy McKinney with a scintillating diving catch in entrance of the left-field fence.

“Type of the play of the sport,” Boone mentioned. “Type of felt like further bases off the bat, form of adjustments the complexion [of the game].”

Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a solo house run within the fifth inning, however that was all of the harm the Yankees might handle towards younger Astros righty Hunter Brown. Giancarlo Stanton added his third homer in as many video games within the eighth inning.