The New York Yankees have been forced once again to rely on their depth as a primary focal point of their team. Luckily, it seems as if their reserve pieces are playing better than the starters, having beaten the Red Sox in two consecutive games, scoring 12 runs, and allowing just four.
With a short two-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies starting on Tuesday evening, the Yankees will then take on Boston once again over four games, which could be their opportunity to climb back into the AL East standings.
Currently, the Bombers are 7.5 games back from Boston in the East, also sitting 4.0 games back behind the Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card race. There is still a chance for them to make a postseason run late in the year, but they need to be firing on all cylinders from here on out.
Luis Severino is making great progress after suffering a setback:
Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino suffered a Grade 1 groin strain a few weeks ago during a rehabilitation outing in the minors. This cost him a few extra weeks, but he’s still expected to make a return this year. Severino has only pitched 12 innings over the past two seasons and is desperately looking to make his way back to the starting team.
Luckily, over 30 pitches in a simulated game, skipper Aaron Boone indicated that Severino looked solid.
“I thought he threw the ball really well,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Severino’s sim game. “Looks strong, healthy, which I think syncs up with everything the first go around before he hurt his leg.”
“That’ll be something that we decide if he’s at 50, 60, 70 pitches, there’s a chance he could be here at that point,” Boone explained. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves in that regard. We’ll see where we’re at three and four and five weeks from now.”
The last time the Bombers had Severino for a full season was in 2018, when he recorded a 3.39 ERA, 10.35 strikeouts per nine, and won 19 games. They desperately need that version of Luis back if they want to make a deep run this year, despite the team’s obvious struggles.