Yankees ace Luis Severino talks ASG, ‘Friends’ and Jacob deGrom

After learning he’ll pitch the second inning for the American League in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, Yankees ace Luis Severino spoke to Jim Rome about his humble beginnings and how watching ‘Friends’ helped him learn English.

Yankees ace Luis Severino is a busy man. It began last Friday with his much-anticipated matchup versus Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians.

For the first time in over a month, Sevvy was unable to secure a victory, as he battled through five tough innings, allowing nine hits, four runs and a season-low one strikeout (his lowest total since Sept 2016). Luckily, four Yankee relievers were able to hold the Indians hitless over the remaining four frames as New York beat Cleveland 7-4.

In a start Severino will look to forget quickly, the 24-year-old clear-cut No. 1 finished the first half of the 2018 season with an AL-best 14 wins (two losses), 2.31 ERA, 1.005 WHIP, .209 BAA and 144:32 K:BB ratio in 128.1 innings pitched.

Though the campaign was justified for Severino to potentially get the nod to start the Mid-Summer Classic for the Junior Circuit, Astros manager A.J. Hinch eventually decided to go with Red Sox ace Chris Sale.

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Sale, who will start an All-Star Game for the third time in his career, may have an inferior record compared to Severino (10-4), however, his other statistics are hard to make a case against, unless you’re Mike Mazzeo of the NY Daily News: 2.23 ERA, 0.899 WHIP, .184 BAA and 188:31 K:BB ratio in 129 innings.

Severino, the happy-go-lucky Cy Young candidate, told Newsday he totally agrees with Hinch’s decision.

“Chris Sale deserves all the honors,” Severino said Monday of Boston lefthander Chris Sale getting the start for the American League a third straight year. “He’s one of the great pitchers in baseball right now. He will start. This year, next year and all the years. I’m just looking forward to pitching.”

With Severino set to pitch the second inning of Tuesday night’s grand exhibition game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced he will give his No. 1 starter 10 days off in total, and not use him again until Monday, July 23, when the Yanks start a three-game series with the Rays.

Seeing to his some of his All-Star duties, Severino appeared on the Jim Rome Show on Monday. The two spoke about Sevvy’s excellent use of English as a second language and how the TV sitcom ‘Friends’ played a huge part in his development.

“I love learning English. Every year I come to the United States, if I didn’t know something I’d ask my teammates and they tell me. I also watch a lot of movies. I love watching ‘Friends.’ I think I learned a lot of English from watching ‘Friends,’ and that kept me going.”

It turns out Sevvy’s favorite character on the long-running NBC show was Joey, which we share in common.

Another thing that Severino said during the All-Star festivities in Washington D.C. that should sit well with Yankees fans was when he was asked by the media how he’d feel if the Yanks were to trade for crosstown rival Jacob deGrom.

“He’s one of the greatest pitchers,” Severino said on Monday at All-Star Game media day. “Great guy. He’s awesome. … if they trade him to the Yankees, I mean, that would be great.”

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A homegrown ace, coming off a third-place Cy Young finish, pitching even better one season later that also loves ‘Friends’ and is charismatic as heck? Yep, that’s our Luis Severino. How you doin’?