Sevy treated rudely in return to Bronx as A's fall to Yankees

NEW YORK – Right-hander Luis Severino was on the road again Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. For the Athletics, that was great news, because he has been at his best when pitching away from Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. He went in with a 2.27 road ERA to back it up.

However, Severino had possibly his worst outing of the season in a 12-5 loss to the Bronx Bombers. He allowed seven runs (six earned) and was out of the game with two outs in the fourth inning. It marked the fourth time this season opponents have scored seven runs against him.

Lately, playing on the road hasn’t been ideal for Severino. In his past two starts, Severino has allowed 14 runs (13 earned) in 8 2/3 innings and has seen his overall ERA climb to 5.18.

“The last 8 2/3 haven’t been great. We talked about the inning that gets away from him,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “Executing pitches and commanding the baseball, we haven’t done that today at all.”

Severino was able to get out of the first inning unscathed, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. made sure Severino’s day on the mound was short. In the second, it was Chisholm who made it a 1-0 game by hitting his 13th homer of the season. The following frame, Chisholm hit a bases-clearing triple, then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 5-0 game.

"I feel like me. I feel like I'm back in my era when I was younger, going out there and just hitting," said Chisholm, who has a slash line of .318/.379/.600 since coming off the injured list on June 3.

Severino was out of the game after allowing a two-out, two-run bomb to Aaron Judge and hitting Ben Rice with a pitch.

Severino said he is healthy and expects to get out of his slump. There is plenty of baseball left, he insisted. He is not sure if he is tipping his pitches, which was an occasional problem when he pitched for the Yankees from 2015-23.

After facing the Tigers last Tuesday, Severino had a bullpen session to try to figure out what he was doing wrong.

“I saw some little things. Not 100%,” Severino said. “Most of the tipping is not at 100%. It’s like 70 to 80%. I’m just working on my glove positioning. I feel like today was better. Today, it was just the third inning [that hurt me].”

Severino pitched at Yankee Stadium for the first time since Sept. 8, 2023. He sounded like a guy who is used to playing in The House that George Steinbrenner Built.

“Not even here, but in general,” Severino said about his overall performance. “This is not me. This is not close to being me with the numbers that I have.

“Just know that every time they give me the ball, I want to go out there and make a statement. This is not [the] year I was planning.”

With the team down, 10-1, the Athletics did their best to make it a game by scoring four runs in the sixth inning off reliever JT Brubaker.

“This team has a lot of fight,” Kotsay said. “When you get behind in a game, it’s easy to give those at-bats away. I think you saw that they didn’t give at-bats away. We put together a good solid inning, and [our] bullpen couldn’t hold it to where it was.”