Severino Starts Hot, Yankee Bats Go Cold

I kept worrying that all those runs the Yankees have been scoring lately -- 13 against Chicago on Friday, 12 more against Chicago on Sunday, and 13 against Boston on Tuesday -- would mean that they'd come up short at an inappropriate time.

Such as the major league debut of Luis Severino.

Last night, he 21-year-old Dominican righthander took the mound at Yankee Stadium II, wearing Number 40. The 1st major league batter he faced was Boston Red Sox 2nd baseman Brock Holt, and he got him to ground out to 1st baseman Mark Teixeira.

He was done in by his own defense. In the top of the 2nd, with 2 out, Mike Napoli hit a grounder to 3rd, and Chase Headley made a bad throw, allowing Napoli to reach 2nd. Alejandro De Aza then doubled him home to give The Scum a 1-0 lead.

In the 4th, he faced David Ortiz, and, just like he does to every other Yankee pitcher who refuses to try to intimidate him, the big fat lying cheating bastard hit a home run off him. 2-0 Boston.

Those were the only 2 hits that Severino allowed. He allowed no walks. Joe Girardi took him out after just 5 innings -- 94 pitches. He had retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced. But Girardi's Binder Full of Strategies told him, "Take him out."

We have to burn that binder.

Carlos Beltran hit a home run, his 9th of the season, to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Other than that, here's the Yankee baserunners from the 1st 8 innings last night: A walk by Brett Gardner in the 1st, a walk by Beltran in the 2nd, singles by Didi Gregorius and John Ryan Murphy in the 5th (a Jacoby Ellsbury strikeout ending probably the Pinstripes' best chance of the game), and a single by Murphy in the 8th.

The Yankees got decent pitching from Adam Warren in the 6th, 7th and 8th, and Chasen Shreve in the top of the 9th. Four innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, no runs. They got the job done.

And the Yankees did threaten in the bottom of the 9th. Alex Rodriguez popped up behind home plate to leave the inning off, but Teix singled to right. Girardi sent Chris Young in to pinch-run, and he advanced to 2nd on a wild itch by Kohi Uehara. Beltran hit one to deep center, and for a moment it seemed like we had a dramatic walkoff win. But Jackie Bradley hauled it in. Headley drew a walk, to put the winning run on baseball.

Girardi went for broke, sending the hot-hitting Brian McCann up to pinch hit for Didi. (Murphy had gotten the start behind the plate, giving McCann the day off, and he did get 2 hits, so I can't argue with the strategy.) But he, too, could only fly to deep center, stranding the tying and winning runs.

Red Sox 2, Yankees 1. In the words of the immortal Joe Schultz, "Ah, shitfuck."

WP: Steven Wright (5-4). SV: Uehara (24). LP: Severino (0-1), who really deserved much better. If Girardi can only manage to avoid screwing him up, he could be the guy the Yankees need in the rotation -- now, and for the next 15 years.

The series concludes tonight. CC Sabathia starts for the Good Guys, and this would be a good time to show us the CC we saw mow down MLB batters from 2001, and especially from 2007, until 2012. Eduardo Rodriguez starts for Boston.

Let's go Yankees! Beat The Scum!