The Yankees hand out a championship wrestling belt to one major contributor to each victory after the game, and although it came in two innings of relief in a game seemingly already decided, Luis Severino was the obvious recipient on Tuesday night.
After 707 days away from game action, how could it have been anyone else?
“Proud moment for him and for his teammates and for all of us that have seen him go through a lot,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’re talking about a great pitcher in this league that has obviously had the injury big and had different things, and worked his tail off to get to this moment.”
The Yanks also gave an emotional Severino the ball from his first strikeout on Tuesday, which came on the first batter he faced in the top of the eighth, much later than he had been used to taking the mound for the first time. But the former ace will take any role he can get after nearly two years away, and the Yankees are equally excited to have one of their top pitchers back in the fold.
“Long awaited,” Aaron Judge said of Severino’s return. “I know the fans were excited for that, and so were we as teammates. It was pretty special having him back. He’s a big piece of this team and this organization. Hoping to build off of this great outing he had.”
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Judge, who doubled and homered on Tuesday, would have been a candidate for the championship belt of any other game, but this wasn’t a typical win. Severino, who dealt with two different setbacks in his rehab from Tommy John surgery, hadn’t pitched since the 2019 ALCS, and came on to toss two shutout innings in a reintroduction that went as well as could be expected.
“There’s gotta be rust, nerves, all of that going out there,” Boone said. “I thought he handled himself really well…a great first step for him.”
The next steps are still to be determined, and Boone won’t put a limit on what the two-time All-Star can be for the Yanks over the final week and a half of the season, where all the games will be crucial to the team’s playoff hopes.
“He’s Luis Severino, so I’m not gonna cap what that can be,” Boone said. “We’ll see. It’s pretty late here in the season, but that’s a talented person and a great pitcher. I don’t want to put too many expectations on him, but I’m not gonna limit what he’s capable of here down the stretch.
“But for tonight, we celebrate him and his journey back to a major league mound. Really happy for him and proud of him.”
That’s just what the Yankees did after Tuesday’s win, celebrating a long road back for one of their most important pitchers at one of the most important points of the season.
“It was a good time in there,” Judge said of the clubhouse scene after the game. “He’s been missing for a while, but it’s a long recovery for him to come back from Tommy John. Happy he’s back and happy he’s healthy. We’re gonna need him down the stretch, I know that.”
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