Severino, homers lead Yankees past Reds 9-5

By Scott Orgera NEW YORK » Luis Severino dominated over seven innings, Didi Gregorius and Todd Frazier homered, and the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-5 on Wednesday to sweep the two-game series.

The Yankees have won six of eight, inching closer to first-place Boston in the AL East.

Severino (7-4) did not allow a runner past second base until the seventh. He struck out nine, eight swinging, many on a devastating slider that looked untouchable at times.

The 23-year-old fireballer has emerged as New York’s de facto ace, pitching brilliantly since the AllStar break. Severino has allowed just one earned run in 21 innings (0.43 ERA) and has completed seven innings in a career-best four straight starts.

Reds starter Homer Bailey (2-5) lost his third straight outing, charged with seven runs (five earned) on 10 hits in sixplus innings.

Following RBI hits by Gary Sanchez and Matt Holliday with no outs in the seventh, Gregorius deposited reliever Tony Cingrani’s first pitch into the right field stands to give the Yankees an 8-2 lead. It was Gregorius’ fourth long ball in the last three games.

Frazier also went deep off of Cingrani, his 17th of the season and first with the Yankees, making the score 9-2.

New York, which acquired Frazier last week in a trade with the Chicago White Sox, scored the game’s first run with two outs in the third. Clint Frazier followed back-to-back singles by Ronald Torreyes and Brett Gardner with a looping line drive to shallow right, scoring Torreyes and giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

Their second run crossed the plate in almost the same fashion with two outs in the fifth. Torreyes and Gardner’s line-drive singles were followed by Frazier’s RBI single to left.

The Yankees doubled their lead in the sixth on a pair of unearned runs. Shortstop Jose Peraza made an off-balance attempt on a Gregorius grounder, throwing wide of first for a two-base error. Chase Headley followed with an RBI single, extending the lead to 3-0.

Todd Frazier was hit by a pitch. Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a hard grounder to first baseman Joey Votto, whose errant throw to second pulled Peraza off the bag and loaded the bases. Frazier was initially ruled out, but a replay review overturned the call.