Friday, May 13, 2016

Sale Cruises, Severino Loses Sixth,7-1

     On a soggy night in New York, the Yankees hosted the AL Central leading Chicago White Sox in game one of a three game set. Looking for his first win of the campaign, Louise Severino took the ball for New York, and would once again struggle. A solid Severino outing was all the more necessary because New York was taking on an early contender for the Cy Young Award in the form of 6'6" Chris Sale. The fireballing lefty is undefeated this season, with seven wins and a sparkling 1.79 ERA. And those numbers would not lie tonight as he cruised to his eighth win of the season. 
     Severino struggled early, with "early" being an understatement as he drilled the leadoff hitter Adam eaten with the second pitch of the game. Although he would escape the inning unscored upon, thanks in large part to an unbelievable play by shortstop Ronald Torreyes, he would not fare so well in the top of the second. The rookie lead off the second by serving up a double to second baseman Brett Lawrie, who would come around to score two batters later when Alex Avila drilled a double of his own, giving the Sox a one run lead. Then, after walking the nine-hitter Austin Jackson, Severino allowed a weakly-hit infield single to Adam Eaton, loading the bases for Chicago. With two outs, which seems to be a prevailing theme with this team, Severino gave up a bullet-single to Jose Abreu, scoring both Jaxson and Avila, extending their lead to 3-0. All told, Severino faced nine batters and reached the 56-pitch mark, again, by just the end of the second inning. 
      Despite Chase Headley getting one run back in the bottom of the second off of a solo bomb to left, Severino found himself in even more trouble, this time in the top of the third. With two outs, Alex Avila singled and then moved to second on the second walk of Austin Jackson. Adam Eaton got to Severino again with another double, scoring two and extending their lead even farther to 5-1. The next batter, Jimmy Rollins, blasted a Severino fastball and to the right field seats, scoring eaten, 7-1, and forcing Severino to the showers. The Yankees trainer escorted Severino to the dugout, so there could possibly be an injury to report on, but, it was not a good night at all for the young right-hander.
     With this being just the first game of the three-game set, the Yankees did not want to abuse their bullpen,but unfortunately were not left with much choice. What they did not expect was the quality Audi Nick Goody gave to them in relief of the battered Severino. The rookie right-handed reliever would go on to give the Yankees 3.1 scoreless innings, only allowing one hit and striking out three. Chasen Shreve and Kirby Yates picked up right where Goody left off, combining to throw three scoreless innings, walking three and striking out two.
     Other than the Chase Headley homerun, Sale was utterly dominant tonight. Chris sailed to his complete game victory, allowing only the one run on six hits, fanning six Yankees in the process. One positive thing, however, to take away from tonight is that Chase Headley is finally starting to heat up. Since turning 32 on Monday, the gold glove third baseman has six hits with two of them leaving the yard. If the Yankees are going to compete this year, they are definitely going to need considerably more production from their third baseman.
    Let's hope for a much better outing from Ivan Nova tomorrow in game two, beginning at 1:05 PM ET. 
    

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)