Starters must find way to ace each test
THE tests keep coming for the Yankees’ rotation. Yankees starters went into Monday night with the ninth best ERA in the majors at 3.76 and that performance helped lift the team into first place in the AL East. When Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild, perhaps the most realistic person in the majors, was told of those numbers he cautioned, “It’s a long season.’’ The calendar flipped to May on Monday night and the numbers were not pretty, as young Luis Severino was shelled in a 7-1 loss to the struggling Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays do not struggle against Severino. He is 0-3 lifetime against them with a 6.38 ERA. He surrendered eight hits, two home runs and five runs over 5 2/3 innings. Can the Yankees starting pitchers sustain the success they had in April? Opposing hitters where hitting just .175 coming in against Severino but even the outs were loud Monday night. One of those outs was a drive to the center-field wall by Ryan Goins that was snagged by Jacoby Ellsbury with runners on second and third in the sixth. Ellsbury slammed into the wall as both runners Justin Smoak and Devon Travis scored on the rare two-run sacrifice fly. Goins entered the game batting .200 with four RBIs (by the end of the game, he doubled that number). He smashed a two-run home run in the second on a 3-1 pitch. No. 9 hitter Chris Coghlan crushed his first home run of the season later in the sixth ending Severino’s night. Here is a disturbing number. Severino has allowed at least one home run in 13 of his 14 starts at Yankee Stadium. That’s 19 home runs over 74 2/3 innings. Joe Girardi said Severino was just “a little off.’’ That speaks to the challenge ahead for the Yankees starters. A little makes a big difference. “If you are not ahead in the count and if you are not locating you can get hit pretty badly in this league and that’s what it was,’’ Girardi said. “I didn’t think he didn’t have anything, I just think he was a little off, behind in some counts.’’
The secondary stuff was better but Severino admitted he had no fastball command.
Fastball command is the Holy Grail of pitching. Too often pitchers get sidetracked on the numbers — miles per hour, instead of perfecting location. Severino (2-2, 3.86) is going through those growing pains now in the majors.
Severino was fantastic last time out against the Red Sox.
“I was getting behind in the count,’’ Severino said. “Against Boston it was strike one and strike two.
“It’s tough, you have to keep working and be ready every five days, sometimes you are going to go out there and you are not going to have your good stuff and you have to come back.” Being down in the count courts disaster. Add that two-run sacrifice fly and you begin to understand what kind of night it was for Severino.
“That was a 3-0 fastball,’’ he said of the pitch to Goins. “I was seeing everybody running I didn’t know what happened on that play.’’
The Yankees went 13-25 against the Blue Jays the previous two seasons.
“We’re thankful that our starters are kind of tapping on their ceilings,’’ general manager Brian Cashman said before the game, but also offered a word of caution. “We need it. If we want to be the best team we can be our starters have to maximize their potential.’’
The Yankees believe they will score runs.
“We felt what we’ve been seeing for the last two months of last year, spring training this year and the first month, our offense should be fine,’’ Cashman said. “It’s how well will we pitch? They’re capable but they also have injury histories, erratic performance, so if all that smooths itself out and we take the proper steps.’’
It sure would help the offense if Greg Bird started producing. He remains in a funk and was hitless Monday night dropping his average to .100 as the Yankees dropped out of first.
Remember, it is a long season.