The Bullpen Whisperer

Prime This

Luis Severino a former reliever weapon knew exactly how to  fix the Bombers leaky bullpen..

Necessity is the Mother of Invention, not Frank Zappa,  so in an effort to  not  gave Psycho Joey Claps a chance to blow the 2nd outstanding outing by a home grown Yankees starter,  23 yr old Severino stepped up and tossed an 8 innings, 4 hit, no run gem, and the Yanks beat the Royals 3-0

Severino has proven quite a few people wrong, after a tumultuous  2016 campaign  as a failed starter, the bull pen looked to be his final  destination.. Most folks around the game give the Yankees baseball OPs team  all  the credit for acknowledging the talent and sticking to  the starter plan, despite the mercurial feel  to all of his 2016 starts..

What needs to be hammered home more then slaps on the backs to a system that doesn’t have a track record for producing  top flight starters, is Severino  reaching out to Pedro Martinez this off season..

It’s not exactly splitting the atom seeing a natural  97-100 MPH fast ball with life, and a workable slider to go  with it and  realizing the up-side, but nobody in the Yankees system knew how to unlock the mysteries that  were stowed away inside Severino’s head, until  the Pedro Sessions

“It was really tough to face him,” Cain said. “He was lights out tonight, pretty much unhittable.”

Severino had all  3 of his pitches working, when he accomplishes that feat, on any 5th  day the Yanks have a stopper..

KnuckleHead O’Neill made himself useful in the booth  by pointing out how hard Severino  was throwing his change up on occasion, and the result was less life on his pitch, so  there is still work  to be done, but a tremendously vast improvement has materialized

After Escobar  belted the first pitch  from Severino to  the center field wall that Ellsbury tracked down, getting a concussion and an out for his extreme effort, Louie cleaned up  the first  three innings unscathed

Working with  a 1-0 lead thanks to  a Gregorius Tater in the third inning he gave up his first hit, a lead off single to Escobar in the 4th, but the base-runner died on the vine..

From there Severino  worked around a 2 out double in the 5th, a lead off infield single in the 6th, now up  2-0 he pitched a shut down 7th working around a lead off walk..

He finished off his night in the 8th inning sandwiching 2 punch outs and an F/9 around a 1 out single that had Psycho Joey Claps getting itchy to pull the bull pen trigger but he restrained from making any foolish moves

Probably the smartest  thing P-Joe has done all  week…

Betances continued his FU Levine Tour by being as Nasty as we’ve ever seen him

Betances relieved Severino. 0 3
Moustakas struck out swinging. 0 3
Cain struck out swinging. 0 3
Hosmer struck out looking. 0 3
0 RUNS, 0 HITS, 0 ERRORS

Severino  and Betances were the ultimate Psycho Joey Claps kryptonite

Hit and Run

The Bombers only needed the Gregorius Tater in the 3rd, but there was comfort  getting some insurance along the way..

The SanBino after a night off was feeling his oats in the 6th inning.. A lead off single, a stolen base, a pop up  slide got him to  third base when Perez’s throw scooted into  center field, and Holliday  chased him home with a sac fly to  RF

The Bombers scored their 3rd and final  run in the 7th on a lead off Double by Gregorius and a one out single by Gardzilla

The Yanks only picked up 7 hits, Gardner, Sanchez, Holliday, and Judge had singles, Hicks a double, and Gregorius  who only saw 9 pitches in 4 PA’s,  hit the 400 ft Big fly to RF, and the booming double to right center, he also scored 2 of the 3 Yankees runs..

Hammel  did a decent job keeping the Bomber bats off balance with a lot of junk ball pitching .. 56 of his 98 pitches were breaking balls, and 11 of the 15 swings and misses came behind his slider, change-up  and curve command.. Technically his 6 inning, 6 hit, 3 run outing was a quality start, just not quality enough up  against the dominant Severino  and Betances

BATTING
2B: Hicks (5, Hammel); Gregorius (5, Hammel)
HR: Gregorius (3, 3rd inning off Hammel 0 on, 0 Out)
RBI: Gregorius (17), Holliday (28), Gardner (20)
SF: Holliday
Yankees RISP: 1-3 (Headley 0-1, Carter 0-1, Gardner 1-1)
Team LOB: 6
BASERUNNING
SB: Sánchez (1, 2nd base off Hammel/Pérez)
FIELDING
DP: 1 (Severino-Castro-Carter).

The win jacked the Bombers lead in the AL East  to  2.5 after the O’s were swept by a hot Twins team.. The whole division sans the Orioles is hot, and it looks like the Nickel Dime Red Sox are making their move only 3.5 back… They aren’t a slugging team, but especially in Fenway, they will single double you to  death..

the Whole 9

The Yanks and Royals are postponed today, make up  date sometime late September