Yankees: Has Luis Severino turned the corner after recent slump?

Luis Severino was a leading Cy Young candidate in the first half of the season, but it’s been a struggle for him so far in the second half. That was until Wednesday night when Sevy delivered a very solid outing for the Yankees to help the team complete the sweep over the White Sox.

Coming into last night Severino had produced five straight poor outings for the Yankees. He saw his season ERA of 1.98 ballon all the way up to 3.08 and gave up a combined eight home runs in those starts.

Not only was Sevy getting hit hard but his control was way off and he wasn’t missing bats and overpowering hitters. His velocity has been slightly down as well and he’s failed to pitch deep into games like he was able to do for the majority of the first half. Despite his struggles, he’s still on pace for another excellent season and his performance Wednesday night was a sign that maybe he’s back on track.

For the first time in seven starts, Sevy gave the Yanks seven innings, striking out eight and giving up three earned runs. He got off to a shaky start allowing two runs in the first inning, but the only blip from the rest of his outing was a solo home run he gave up in the fifth. He still didn’t look like he was all the way back and the start did come against a lousy White Sox team, but there were plenty of positives to think that more starts like this are to come.

One thing Sevy does as well as any starter in baseball when he’s on his game is he maintains his stuff and his velocity deep into games. Wednesday night he finished off his performance with a strikeout on a 98 mph fastball on his 109th pitch. For much of the night, his fastball ranged from 95-97 which isn’t what we’re accustomed to seeing from Sevy so it was a positive to see him finish strong and even hit 99 on the gun in his last inning.

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It was also great to see him use his slider to put hitters away. Six of his eight K’s came swinging at that pitch. It was the best slider Sevy’s featured in weeks. It was falling off the table with nasty break and the difference in velocity between it and his fastball was about 10-12 mph, which is perfect.

Again, even though it was against the now 41-73 White Sox it was a huge outing because it continued a stretch of great starting pitching over the course of the three-game set. Lance Lynn and CC Sabathia were both excellent in Games 1 and 2 of the series so it was extremely important for the Yankees ace to follow suit and lead the team to a sweep.

With J.A. Happ back from the DL tonight and Masahiro Tanaka pitching very well lately this Yankee rotation is starting to look strong as they continue to make their playoff push. However, if they have any hopes of making it to the World Series come October a lot of that will depend on how Severino pitches.

Now with Sonny Gray out of the rotation, the Yankees starting staff looks much more stable than it did a couple weeks ago but they need Sevy to be their ace. As solid as everyone else is none of them can carry the staff or shut down any opposing lineup like he can when he’s at his best.

Last night was a big, important step in the right direction, but it’d be nice to see another four or five consecutive starts just like last night to know that Sevy’s slump is completely behind him. If he can do that this Yankee team will take off and take full advantage of their easy August schedule.