Yankees: Luis Severino looks to get some revenge against the Twins in October

The Yankees dominated the Twins over the weekend in the Bronx by outscoring them 18 to 6 to take a commanding 2-0 series lead in the ALDS. Now the series shifts to Minnesota for Game 3 where Luis Severino will get the ball for New York. He’ll have a chance to advance the Yanks to the ALCS and get some revenge against the Twins offense after their last meeting in October.

Luis Severino will make only his fourth appearance of the season for the Yankees in Game 3, but since his return from the IL on September 17th he’s been solid. He’s hasn’t quite looked like the All-Star ace he was over the past two seasons, but he’s trending in that direction and hopefully, he’ll continue to do so Monday night.

In just 12 innings pitched during September he had a 1.50 ERA with 17 K’s and a WHIP of 1.00. He started his season strong with nine scoreless innings before running into some trouble in Texas during his last start when he allowed two runs and walked four in three innings.

However, he struck out four and his slider looked very sharp at times. His fastball velocity wasn’t touching 97/98 mph like it was during his first two starts but it looked like he was treating the outing as more of a tune-up start so he wasn’t trying to let it loose like he probably will against the Twins.

This will be the seventh playoff start for Sevy’s who’s struggled during the month of October so far in his career. In his first-ever playoff start back in 2017, he didn’t make it out of the first inning against these Twins in the AL Wild Card Game so he’ll be looking for some revenge this time around. Overall he’s 1-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 23 innings so he’s averaged just under four innings per start. Last postseason in two starts he only pitched a combined seven innings and allowed six runs and six walks.

Considering this is only his fourth start of the season I don’t think anyone expects Sevy to give the Yankees more than four or five innings but he is stretched out enough to throw up to 90 pitches. Whether the Yankees will allow him to do so, however, is unlikely because the bullpen will be well-rested after the day off on Sunday.

Expect Aaron Boone to be very aggressive with his pen especially if Sevy can’t keep his pitch count low in the early innings. That’s been a big problem for him in the past during the postseason so hopefully, he can pound the strike zone early and exploit a Twins offense that saw the 27th fewest pitches per at-bat of any team in baseball during the regular season.

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The Twins have struggled so far at the plate during the first two games but they’ll be looking to break out at home where they hit 137 home runs during their record-breaking regular season. Sevy needs to be in attack mode from the start but he also can’t make many mistakes in the strike zone because this lineup will make him pay with the long ball.

This is a huge start for Sevy for obvious reasons but even more so because if he starts pitching like an ace again the Yankees’ odds of advancing all the way to the World Series increase by a lot. He didn’t contribute much to the team’s success during the regular season due to injury but none of that matters because now he’s healthy and ready to make an impact.

Monday night Sevy’s season really begins. It’s time for him to step up and exercise his October demons and that starts by putting the Twins away for good.