The Yankees lost to the Houston Astros on Friday after Severino struggled
The Yankees lost to the Houston Astros on Friday night at Yankee Stadium after winning the first game of the series on Thursday. Luis Severino struggled once again as he allowed five earned runs with five hits, three walks and two home runs in 4.0 innings pitched.
Severino put the team behind the eight ball an in a bad position after the second inning when the Astros had a 4–0 lead. In the first inning, catcher Yainer Diaz hit a 3-run homer to score Kyle Tucker and Jose Altuve to give the Astros a 3–0 lead and then in the second inning Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score a run to make the score 4–0.
Severino allowed a long 428 foot homer to center to the dangerous Yordan Alvarez to leadoff the fifth inning. Alvarez was deservedly Severino last batter and then Albert Abreu was brought into the game.
Severino now has a 13.85 ERA in the first inning this season. He’s given up 20 runs (on six home runs) in 13 first innings. He has allowed 17 homers in 61 innings pitched this season. Opponents are hitting .435 (27-for-62) against Severino in the first as well.
In his 13 starts this season, Severino has a very high 7.74 ERA, a 1.85 WHIP, has allowed five earned runs or more in six of those 13 starts and four runs in another, has only pitched at least 6.0 innings three times and has allowed 14 earned runs and 15 hits in his last 7.1 innings (two starts).
Aaron Boone on Luis Severino potentially moving to the bullpen: “Everything is on the table moving forward.” They said that they are still trying to have him find that consistency. At this point it would make sense for Jhony Brito or Randy Vazquez to take his spot in the rotation at least for a week or two because he has not been like the high quality pitcher he has been previously.
The Yankees hit three home runs in this game but they were all solo homers, which meant that they only score three runs. They went 0–7 with runners in scoring position. They continued their trend of not hitting well with runners in scoring position, which prevented them from coming back in this game.
Jake Bauers hit his homer off the bottom of foul pole in the 3rd inning. It went into the short porch and only would have been a homer at Yankee Stadium. In Bauers’s last 15 games, he is 13–52 (.250) with seven runs scored, five doubles, four homers and seven RBI. He has a .229 average overall in 58 game this season. Since coming off the injured list, he is 8–32 (.250) in nine games.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit his sixth homer of the season to the first row of the short porch to make the score 5–2 in the fifth inning. It was his first homer since June 29 and he went the other way. Kiner Falefa now has six homers in 84 games this season after having four homers in 142 games last season in his first year with the Yankees.
Aaron Judge pinch hit for Kyle Higashioka and struck out and is now 1–16 in his career as a pinch hitter. He came up with runners on first and second base in the seventh inning.
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In the bottom of the eighth inning, Giancarlo Stanton hit a homer that had a 116.7 mph exit velocity off the bat for his 395th career homer. That was the first of the Yankees three homers that would not have only been a homer in Yankee Stadium. Stanton has 10 homers in his last 21 games and has hit homer in three consecutive games.
It is a positive sign that Stanton is hitting well since the Yankees offense is much better when he is driving in a lot of runs since he can be streaky. After Stanton’s homer, Billy McKinney grounded out to the pitcher Rafael Montero to end the eighth.
Abreu allowed two runs in 1.2 innings on a Tucker two-run double to right but the next two Yankees relief pitchers, Nick Ramirez and Keynan Middleton, did not allow a run in 3.1 innings pitched. Ramirez struggled a little allowing three hits and a walk but after allowing a walk and a double to his first two batters (the two runs scored on that double were charged to Abreu), the only base runners he allowed were an infield single in the seventh with two outs and then an infield single in the eighth with two outs.
The Yankees have the lowest bullpen ERA in Major League Baseball. Middleton, who was traded to the Yankees from the White Sox about 15 minutes before the trade deadline earlier this week on August 1, made his Yankees debut and he has great slider. He retired the side in order and did not allow any hard contact since the first batter grounded out to back to him and then the next two batters, including Jose Abreu, struck out. He is the first Yankee ever to wear №93.
Abreu is in his 10th MLB season and first with the Astros. He was a prolific and very productive hitter in his nine seasons with the White Sox. He was the Rookie of the Year in 2014 with 36 homers, 107 RBI, a league leading .581 SLG percentage and a league leading 173 OPS+. He won the MVP in 2020 with 19 homers, a league leading 60 RBI in 60 games (he played in every game), a league leading 76 hits and a league leading .617 SLG percentage. He has been an All-Star three times, has won three Silver Slugger awards, he has driven in at least 100 runs six times and would have in 2020 if it was a full season and he has finished top 21 in MVP voting seven different times.
Abreu had a very good career OPS+ of 130. He has having his worst season of his career since he has a career worst .239 average, a career worst .296 OBP, a career worst .351 SLG percentage and a career worst 79 OPS+. His OPS+ has been 117 or higher in his first nine seasons of his career.
Kiner-Falefa grounded out to second with runners on first and second to end the game. The Astros starting pitcher, Hunter Brown, pitched really well allowing just two runs in 6.0 innings and the Astros are now a season- high 15 games above .500. Brown has allowed two runs in 6.0 innings in each of his last three starts.
The 13-season World Series drought that the Yankees are on is the third longest in team history.
The Yankees have the most days lost to the injured list in American League and only trail the Dodgers in all of Major League Baseball.
Anthony Rizzo is now on the injured list with concussion symptoms. It was determined two days ago that these concussion symptoms come from his collision next for first base with Fernando Tatis Jr. at the end of May. He is now on the 7-day concussion injured list to try and fix his symptoms.
His head issues were definitely affecting him at the plate even though the Yankees were saying he was healthy going back the last month or more.
Rizzo had a .304 average with 32 RBI on May 28 when he had his collision with Tatis. He has a .172 average with nine RBI since May 28 in 46 games. That is a drastic decrease in production.
