Severino's night sours early in Yanks' lopsided loss

NEW YORK -- The Yankees have a Luis Severino problem, and they will head toward the upcoming All-Star break scrambling for answers.

Severino endured his second straight rough outing, torched for seven runs and 10 hits as the Yankees were trounced by the Orioles, 14-1, on Thursday evening at Yankee Stadium.

“I know the kind of pitcher that I am. I’m really not being myself,” Severino said. “I’ve never been this bad of a pitcher in my whole life. It’s just tough to get my head around.”

Gunnar Henderson homered twice for Baltimore, including once off Severino, who lasted only 2 2/3 innings. Severino has permitted seven earned runs or more in consecutive outings; on Saturday at St. Louis, the righty was knocked for nine runs (seven earned) over four-plus frames.

The 13-run margin of defeat matched the Yanks’ largest of the season, equaling a 15-2 drubbing on April 30 at Texas.

“It’s no fun to go through,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to dig deep and get Sevy where he needs to be. Tonight was a frustrating night. No one likes getting beat over the head.”

Severino said that he feels physically fine, and Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake said they saw no injury red flags. Though there have been bright spots -- most recently, six scoreless innings against the American League West-leading Rangers on June 24 -- Severino has largely struggled since his season debut on May 21.

He has permitted 40 runs (35 earned) in 42 2/3 innings (7.38 ERA); last year, Severino gave up just 37 runs (36 earned) in 102 innings (3.18 ERA).

“There’s been a couple of outings where I felt like his stuff was a little short, a little flat,” Boone said. “In a lot of them when he’s gotten hit, there’s execution problems -- pitches in the heart of the plate, not necessarily being sharp with all three of his pitches on a given day. It’s probably been a little bit of everything.”

Blake said that he views Severino’s performance as “a moving target,” noting that there have been issues with all of his pitches at various points.

“This is a little bit excessive for Sevy, because he’s a historically good Major League pitcher,” Blake said. “He’s had success here. He knows what it looks like. The hard part is that he holds himself to a high standard, and we hold him to a high standard. Any time it gets away from that, it snowballs on him and becomes a bigger thing.

“We’ve got to keep trying to minimize that and get back to focusing on things he can control, and that’s his execution and pitch shapes and delivery.”

The most significant drop-off has been with Severino’s slider, a pitch that has been hit hard and one that he is now using relatively sparingly.

“I don’t feel good about any of my pitches right now, really,” Severino said.

Thursday’s outing was ugly, and the game was effectively over early. Henderson slugged a leadoff homer off Severino, who was fortunate to escape the first inning with only that lone run scoring. Baltimore teed off in the third, when the floodgates opened in part on Ryan O’Hearn’s run-scoring double, on which left fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa took a questionable route.

Left-field defense has been an issue for the Yanks all season -- Boone described it as “a mixed bag” -- and their depth took another hit in the series finale, as Jake Bauers appears headed for the injured list with a bruised left rotator cuff. But any shaky glovework was overshadowed by the O's loud contact off Severino.

Six of the hits allowed by Severino carried an exit velocity of 96.0 mph or greater, per Statcast, including rockets by Henderson (105.1 mph) and Anthony Santander (111.1 mph) in the third inning.

“They’re just hitting the ball everywhere,” Severino said.

Blake said that he does not believe Severino is tipping his pitches, but just to be sure, the Yankees plan to execute a forensic deep dive into Severino’s outing on Friday.

“It’s very concerning,” Blake said. “Any time one of our guys gives up that many hits, it’s something we want to look at. Why is this happening? Why are we not missing the barrels? Why are we not getting weaker contact? Why are we not getting more swing-and-miss?”

The upcoming All-Star break could work to the club’s advantage; Severino’s turn in the rotation won’t roll around until the Yankees resume play, offering an opportunity to reset.

“For me, I’ll get my mind off baseball for a little bit,” Severino said.