Yankees takeaways from Saturday's 11-4 Game 1 loss to Cardinals, including Luis Severino's concerning trend
The Yankees have a Luis Severino problem, evidenced by a 11-4 loss at the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.
Four things to know
1. It's time for the Yankees to be concerned about Severino, whose ERA rose to 6.30 after he got shelled for nine runs (seven earned) on nine hits (two homers) while striking out two and walking three in four innings. Severino threw 58 strikes on 87 pitches and put New York's arms in a tough spot entering the nightcap and remainder of this weekend's four-game series.
From a bigger-picture perspective, can the Yankees trust Severino every fifth day going forward this season? With the exception of his previous start -- last Monday's 1-0 win over the Texas Rangers, in which he threw six shutout innings -- Severino has been disastrous dating back to June 2.
In four starts from June 2-18, Severino allowed 21 runs (19 earned) on 29 hits (seven homers) while striking out 18 and walking nine. Saturday's blunder suggests that the Rangers game was an outlier.
2. It didn't matter because Severino dug the Yankees in such a big hole, but New York's bats never showed up. Severino's five-run third inning dug the Yankees into a deficit that New York -- scoreless until Oswaldo Cabrera's seventh-inning RBI single to score Isiah Kiner-Falefa and put the team on the board at 11-1 -- virtually had no chance of overcoming, with the way the bats performed.
After two separate rain delays -- one in the seventh inning and one in the eighth inning -- the Yanks scored three runs in the ninth. Two of those runs came off the bat of Jake Bauers who hit his seventh home run of the season to cut the deficit to seven runs.
3. The Yankees had no answer for Jack Flaherty, who pitched six scoreless innings and scattered four hits while striking out four and walking two. Flaherty threw 60 strikes on 96 pitches before passing the baton to the bullpen.
4. Cabrera and Anthony Volpe were the only Yankees with multi-hit games. Along with his aforementioned RBI single, Cabrera added a hit in the fifth and ninth inning while Volpe finished 2-for-4.
Highlights
What's next
The Yankees (45-37) will now play Game 2 against the Cardinals (34-47).
