Yanks, Severino fall to Tigers in Detroit home opener

     The Yankees began their first road trip of the season this afternoon and were shut out by the Detroit Tigers, 4-0. Today was the season debut for whom many consider to be the Yankees ace, Luis Severino. After making his first 11 starts as a big leaguer last season, Severino had his first opportunity to face one of the games best, Miguel Cabrera. It didn't take long for the rookie to feel the presence of the perennial All-Star, as he lined a single to right, scoring Ian Kinsler who led off the first inning with a base hit. Later in the fourth inning, after loading up the bases, Severino served up a single to Jose Iglesias, scoring J.D. Martinez from third. The next at-bat, he allowed another run to score on a ground out by Anthony Gose. Miguel Cabrera would later hit a solo homerun off Luis Sessa to score their fourth and final run.
     All told, Severino pitched five innings and gave up an eye-popping 10 hits, with three earned runs and five strikeouts, including two by Justin Upton. It was a rough first outing for the rookie, but, one from which you could take away some positives. The game time starting temperature was 38°, so, that could be one contributing factor to the alarming number of hits he gave up. Also, Severino did not walk a single batter in his five innings of work, which is a definite plus. You could see with his five strikeouts of J.D. Martinez, Miguel Cabrera, James McCann and Justin Upton twice, that his stuff is definitely there, he just needed to abide by the number one rule of real estate; location, location, location.
     The Yankees offense didn't do much in the way of helping out their young starter this afternoon either. The Bronx Bombers managed a mere three hits on the day. They also only managed to walk four times, as opposed to striking out seven times. But the most frustrating part of the afternoon was how many runners were left on base, nine. It's definitely hard to win many ballgames leaving an entire starting team on the base paths.
    Look for our Pinstripers to rebound tomorrow in Motown, starting at 1:10 .