Yankees Luis Severino will start on Tuesday vs. Angels

Continuing on his comeback trail to the Yankees, Luis Severino opened Game 2 of the Eastern League Championship Series for the Trenton Thunder as they took on the Bowie Baysox.

Naturally, the Yankees Double-A affiliate, Trenton Thunder, would have wanted to walk away from Game 2 of the ELCS victorious, but for the major league club, the results of the man who opened the contest, Luis Severino, trumped all.

While a lights-out performance would have been nice, it was paramount that Severino felt comfortable on the mound, get in as many reps as he could in an actual game-setting and leave unscathed in terms of his health.

And so, on Tuesday night, Severino worked 3.2 innings versus the Bowie Baysox. Across 64 pitches (47 for strikes), the 2017 Cy Young finalist allowed four runs (one earned) on five hits while striking out five and walking none.

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Though the Thunder would drop the contest 7-2, thanks in large part to some shoddy third-inning defense, Severino’s fastball reached 98 mph — while regularly sitting between 96-97 mph.

In his previous rehab outing, Sevy tossed 50 pitches (37 strikes) while giving up five hits, one run (a home run) and striking out five in three innings.

With his down in the zone changeup and darting slider (88-89 mph) reminiscent of the pitcher that won 19 games for the Yankees in 2018, it appears the organization has seen enough — and intends to have the 25-year-old rejoin the big league team on Thursday in Toronto before making his first start of the MLB season on Tuesday versus the Angels at home.

A long, strange 2019 for the Yankee ace, manager Aaron Boone will likely work Severino back slowly. With less than three weeks until the start of the postseason, if Sevy is able to provide a strong four frames when the time comes, and the offense does what it has all regular-season — then that should be enough to entrust the traditionally stoic bullpen to close out any and all potential wins.

Even before news broke that Sevy was headed to meet his teammates in Toronto, he confidently spoke to Sean Miller of NJ.com about what he needs to do in order to be ready to contribute in the playoffs.

“We are going straight to the postseason. We are a great team, and we have to compete. We have to compete at a high level. I am going there and maybe I have three outings before the postseason, so I have to get my stuff going quickly to be 100 percent ready to fight in the playoffs.”