Yankees beat the Tigers after another great start by Luis Severino

The Yankees beat the Tigers in Game Two of the series in Detroit, 5–3, in a fast game that only three hours and six minutes to complete. It was much different than Tuesday’s first game of the series when both starting pitchers were out of the game before the second inning had ended.

The only run that Severino allowed was an RBI single by Victor Reyes in the second inning.

His fifth inning was his best and most efficient as he threw 11 pitches and all 11 of those were strikes. He asked to stay in the game for one more inning but Aaron Boone did not let him stay in since he did not want him throwing more than 90 pitches (he threw 60 of his 86 pitches for strikes). Severino was very effective but not as dominant as his last start.

“Severino did not have his best stuff but he navigated really well and finished great,” Boone said. I thought the 5th was his best inning and he threw the ball really well. He made big pitches when he needed to. I was proud of the way he finished really under control.”

Even though he could not command all of his pitches like normal he was impressively able to adjust and still keep the team in the game and limit runs from scoring.

“My slider was not there when I needed it so I relied on my changeup,” Severino said. “My mentality was to give my team a chance to win and to keep the game close. It was huge getting the strikeout with bases loaded. My plan was to attack the middle. I threw a couple of good cutters.”

He has really turned around his season and is showing what he is capable of since that hit gave him nine hits in his last 17 at-bats after starting the season 1–17. IKF now has four multi-hit games in his last six and it is really four in his last five since he only had one at-bat in one of those games. He has the potential to have close to 200 hits this season.

Before Kiner-Falefa’s (the Hawaiian Hustle) RBI, Josh Donaldson walked, Locastro pinch ran for Donaldson, and Gleyber Torres had a good sacrifice bunt and then the Tigers threw the ball into center field for an error leading Locastro to get to third. The Yankees then continued their small ball as Kyle Higashioka, who only has a .097 average (3–31) this season, bunted to advance runners to second and third.

Kiner-Falefa, after his recent hot streak, now has the third highest batting average on the team. Aaron Hicks (.303) and DJ LeMahieu (.306) are the only ones on the team with a higher batting average.

The best player overall on offense in this game was Anthony Rizzo, who was 2–4 with a homer, two RBI, two runs scored and also showed the speed that he does have.

Rizzo blasted a no doubt about it homer to right center to make the score 3–1 with one out in the 6th. He hit it 104.2 mph exit velocity off of the bat and then had a line drive double to right as the leadoff hitter in the 8th. Rizzo then stole third after getting a great read for his second straight game with a steal.

“On these cold games you have to stay warm and not think about baseball,” Rizzo said. He said that relaxing and not thinking about the cold helped him hit well in this game.

It seems like from what Boone and Rizzo said after the game that the Yankees will continue to run more and get a lot more steals than last season, which can jump start the team and is a good decision.

“Boone has given us all the green light,” Rizzo said. “We want to be an aggressive team. Pitching and defense will take us where we want to be.”

Holmes was really efficient only needing eight pitches to get out of the 8th and he has now allowed just one earned run in 7.0 innings pitched this season to continue the dominance he had last season after being traded to the Yankees. His sinker is elite and that pitch has helped him have a lot of success since with the Yankees after not having much success earlier in the 2021 season with the Pirates.

Torres made an outstanding sweep tag to get a runner out who was trying to steal second in the second inning.

LeMahieu made an amazing big time defensive play on a soft grounder where he went towards third and threw across his body to first base. LeMahieu made another clutch play at third and this time he had to run towards home plate and throw the other direction to first for the second out of the ninth. Aroldis Chapman got Austin Meadows to hit a routine line drive to Aaron Hicks in center to end the game.

The Yankees were just 2–9 with runners in scoring position but they were able to overcome that with timely hitting and very good defense in this game. It is a good sign that the Yankees had Rizzo’s homer but also a few sacrifice bunts and a steal and another attempted steal. Even though LeMahieu was thrown out, it is still good he was putting pressure on the defense.

Jonathan Loaisiga pitched a scoreless inning and has an inflated 7.11 ERA but has pitched well overall this season. His ERA would be much lower if not for allowing four earned runs in one inning in his previous game. If you take away that game, he has allowed one earned run in six games (5.1 innings).

The Yankees will have an afternoon game in Detroit tomorrow as they will try to sweep the series. It will be in the mid 60s tomorrow afternoon in Detroit, which well be a big improvement from the weather in the first two games of the series.

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