ATLANTA — found himself an out away from escaping a jam that he created, but the continued on Tuesday against the Braves.
Severino’s night began with a single off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr. The Yankees’ right-hander then tried to pick the speedster off of first base. Acuña Jr. had been leaning, but Severino delivered an errant throw that put the runner on third.
Severino was able to record two straight outs after that, but a walk to Matt Olson set Marcell Ozuna up for a three-run homer to straightaway center field. That gave the Braves, baseball’s best team, an early lead that they never relinquished in a 5-0, series-securing win over the Yankees.
Severino, one of the worst starters in the majors this season, settled in for a few innings after that, but a fourth-inning error by third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa preceded another dinger to center. Acuña Jr. produced the second blow for his 27th home run of the season.
“I was feeling really good today,” Severino said of his night. “I feel like I was in command of my pitches. A couple mistakes in there to Ozuna and to — I mean, the one to Acuña, I’m not even mad about. He’s just a great hitter.”
Severino totaled four innings, five hits, five runs, three earned, two walks, five strikeouts and 83 pitches against Atlanta’s formidable lineup. He managed to lower his ERA from 8.06 to 7.98.
Despite the two home runs, Severino and Aaron Boone felt that the hurler had strong stuff. Both noted that Severino got the Braves to swing and miss a bit, a rarity for the former Cy Young finalist this season.
“I haven’t gotten that in a long time,” said Severino, who induced six whiffs with his four-seamer and four with his cutter. “This is a great team. This is the best team in the league right now. Just seeing swings at my fastball and my cutter tonight, it’s really, really good to see.”
Added Boone: “Not a good line, but that was a much better Sevy than we’ve seen.”
The Yankees, meanwhile, had nothing for Bryce Elder, who had endured his own struggles recently.
While the righty entered the game with a 3.64 ERA, Elder had allowed 10 earned runs in his last two starts. The Yankees provided the perfect tonic, though, as they mustered one measly hit against the sophomore starter.
Atlanta’s bullpen didn’t allow any more knocks after Elder twirled seven scoreless innings. He walked and struck out three over 94 pitches.
“He just kept putting us on the ground and generating soft contact,” Boone said. “It just wasn’t good enough.”
Yet another pitiful offensive performance saw the last-place Yankees drop to 60-60. They have not been .500 or worse this late in season since 1995, according to .
They’re at risk of finishing the year under .500, something they haven’t done since 1992.
“We’re not showing up,” Aaron Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. We’re not showing up when we need to, especially down the stretch right now. We got every opportunity to keep ourselves in the race. We’re not capitalizing when we need to.”
Added Boone: “It sucks. We’re just simply not playing well enough. That starts with me and on down. We got to be better. It’s a broken record, right?”
Indeed, it is.
With only 42 games left to play, the Yankees’ chances of making the playoffs are dwindling by the day, as they are now 6.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. The Blue Jays hold that position, and the Mariners and Red Sox are also in front of the Yankees.
Still, Judge said the 2023 campaign is still salvageable, while Boone insisted, “There’s a lot of season left.”
“We talk about being towards the end,” the manager said. “There’s a quarter of the season left, and we gotta do better than this.
“We gotta come in and play well. Forget October, forget September. Like that’s not the focus, and it never is, frankly, when you’re in the driver’s seat. It’s we’re scuffling our asses off, and we need to do better and we need to take some personal pride. It’s not fun getting knocked down and getting beat up, especially when you wear this uniform. So the message continues to be, ‘Make sure we’re competing our asses off,’ and I believe that is happening. I believe they’re ready to go and they want to perform and they want to do well, but we got to do it collectively.”
The Bombers will try to add to their win column and avoid a sweep on Wednesday when they wrap up their series with the Braves. Rookie right-hander Randy Vásquez is expected to pitch in some capacity, but the Yankees had “TBD” listed as their probable pitcher at the time of publication.
Veteran righty Charlie Morton will start for Atlanta.
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