Yankees Are Being Patient With Luis Severino But His Lack In Velocity Is Concerning

Pitcher Luis Severino of the New York Yankees had a terrible game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday to start the series.

Yankees Are Being Patient With Luis Severino But His Lack In Velocity Is Concerning

The Yankees were defeated 8-4 by the Dodgers after the New York pitcher surrendered seven runs in four innings. The Yankees offense was unable to compensate for Severino’s subpar pitching, which infuriated the fans, who blamed the Dominican pitcher for the defeat.

As starter Luis Severino recovered from a lat injury that had him on the disabled list to begin the season, the Yankees chose to be patient with him. The 29-year-old found that the procedure was sometimes moving far too slowly.

In what appeared to be the most important series of the month, Severino started for the Yankees. However, the Dodgers scored six runs against Severino in the first inning, taking the game away from them.

In the bottom of the first inning on Friday at Chavez Ravine, Severino was as hittable as he’s ever been, allowing a leadoff home run, seven more singles, and only being saved by a pickoff throw to third for the last out.

In that horrific period, Severino’s speed was about 2 MPH below normal; frequently, he sat at 94. He once reached his highest point during the second inning.

“I was missing a lot of pitches,” Severino said afterward. “Missed to Mookie Betts, a pitch inside. And this is a good team. They got good hitters, and I had to minimize those mistakes.”

Severino said that he had no idea that his speed had decreased during the game and that he had always relied on his heater. But in his final inning, he only threw five fastballs.

“I feel they were on the fastball,” Severino reasoned. “So I just needed to mix a little bit.”

His fastball has been the only plausible indication of stress up to this point. According to Statcast, Severino’s fastball velocity in his first two starts (97.3 mph average velocity) was the best of his career and places him in the 93rd percentile among pitchers this season.

The right-hander has been using his heater more frequently than he has in prior years (56.7 percent of his pitches), but his slider (21 percent) and changeup (19.7 percent) have both decreased marginally from his 19 starts in the previous year. Additionally, Severino has only used two cutters so far this season, compared to a year ago when he used them in 8% of his pitches.

 

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