Luis Severino fussed with the mound Tuesday night. As a starter, he is not used to a mound that is pock-marked by other pitchers’ landing spots. The Blue Jays grounds crew came out and fixed the spot quickly, and that was about all that has bothered Severino in his return to the big leagues as a temporary reliever.
After missing two seasons coming back from Tommy John, Severino is helping bolster the bullpen as the Yankees make their playoff push. It’s not the bullpen the Yankees planned on; Zack Britton and Darren O’Day are out for the season and Aroldis Chapman hasn’t been the shut-down closer they expected. But it’s been remarkably efficient. Severino, Clay Holmes and Michael King are stepping into big roles as the Bombers roll to the postseason.
Over the last 15 games, the Yankees’ bullpen has led the majors in strikeouts (134) and maintained the third best ERA (3.07) in the American League, despite being without Jonathan Loaisiga, perhaps their most reliable reliever this season. The right-hander is expected to be back Wednesday night as the Bombers try to extend their winning streak to eight games and reduce their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to one. They went into Wednesday night’s game with a two-game lead over the Red Sox for the first AL wild card spot, which comes with the home-field advantage for the Oct. 5 game.
Tuesday night, they were critical after Jameson Taillon re-injured his right ankle and left in the third inning. It’s a point of pride that they allowed just one run over 6.2 innings. King went 2.2 innings and Holmes, Chad Green, Severino and Wandy Peralta each pitched a scoreless inning.
It’s definitely a point of pride for a bullpen that took its fair share of criticism earlier this season.
“I mean, obviously we want our starters to do well and stay healthy and go deep into games because that makes our job easier. But when every single one of our names gets called, we just have to be ready to go,” King said. “Chad’s been unbelievable this year, Clay’s come in and been huge lately. Lucas Luetge’s got like 70-plus innings.” (Luetge has 69.1 innings after going six years in between major league appearances.) “I mean all these guys are just absolutely grinding through the season, and having unbelievable success. It’s really fun to watch and also like fun to surround yourself with those guys because once you see their positive attitude and success, it kind of rubs off on you, So I think that’s kind of what’s happened to the bullpen this whole year.“
While the original plan was for Severino to be an addition to the rotation after the All-Star break, that was scuttled by two significant setbacks. Now, finally healthy, Severino was not built up enough to be a starter, so he’s jumped into the role of a reliever. And Severino’s return to the bullpen — he hadn’t pitched there since 2016 — has come at the perfect time for a group that could use a hand.
In three appearances, he has thrown five scoreless innings, striking out seven. His ability to be so effective and sharp in just his first three appearances since 2019 has impressed even the most discerning eyes.
“I really can’t remember him egregiously not really throwing a defined slider or changeup to a general area,” Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said. “I think oftentimes, I mean, even throughout the season when I’m pitching quite a bit, sometimes you lose feel for those things. So to come out of the gate, and be able to be able to attack sliders in the zone and make defined pitches in that regard is super impressive.
“And I thought that fastball command took a significant step in the second game against Boston where he pitched. He was able to command the bottom half of the zone, as well as the top to grab the leverage and put guys away,” Cole added. “So it’s been tremendously sharp and it’s needless to say it’s been an emotional pick-me-up, certainly for us and probably for Yankees fans.”