Making his first start since game three of the 2019 ALCS, Luis Severino flashed his peak strikeout stuff, and some rust, in his first appearance of the season for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon.
In all, Severino threw 65 pitches in 3+ innings, allowing two runs and striking out five with no walks in his regular season debut, giving the Yanks plenty to be hopeful about in trying to get the 28-year-old back to his 2017-18 form.
Severino pitched about as ideal of a first inning that the Yankees could have hoped for, touching 98 mph on the radar gun and retiring the side on a groundout and two strikeouts, fanning feared hitters Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers to close out the frame. He ran into trouble in the second to start the inning, when J.D. Martinez bounced a grounder up the middle that Isiah Kiner-Falefa couldn’t handle, resulting in what was ruled as a single. Alex Verdugo made him pay with a two-run blast to right in what was a stressful, 31-pitch inning.
On the bright side of Severino’s second inning, he touched 100 mph, his fasted pitch since 2018, and won an 11-pitch battle against Christian Vazquez with a grounder back to the mound to end the inning with three straight groundouts after Trevor Story had followed Verdugo’s homer with a double that was softly hit, but just out of the reach of a diving Joey Gallo in left field.
Severino flashed his strikeout stuff once again in the third, working around a Devers double by fanning Enrique Hernandez, Bogaerts, and Martinez. He finished with five strikeouts in three-plus innings, coming out after allowing a leadoff single in the fourth, exiting to a nice ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd.
Severino, who had a brief scare in spring training when he experienced arm soreness before his final outing, showed no signs of fatigue or discomfort in terms of his velocity. He averaged 98 mph on his fastball while topping out at 100.3. He also backed that up with the changeup that turned him into one of the best starters in the game in 2017 and 2018, striking out all three batters in the third inning with that changeup.
Command was the big concern in spring, as he walked five in 7.2 innings, but with no free passes on Saturday, Severino provided one of many other reasons for the Yankees to be optimistic that their former ace can regain his peak form.
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