On a night when Luis Severino may have thrown his last pitch in pinstripes, the Yankees were pummeled by the Milwaukee Brewers 8-2.
Severino, who was pitching well, left the game in the fifth inning with what was described as a left side injury. After Brice Turang singled to lead off the fifth, Severino was seen writhing in pain. Eventually, Severino slowly walked off the mound toward the dugout and was replaced by Jhony Brito. “Feel like somebody shot me, felt like a deep shot of pain,” an emotional Severino said after the game.
The 29-year old, who has had a rough season in his walk year and has an injury plagued history, went 4+ innings and allowed just a two run home run to Willy Adames. Severino will likely miss the remainder of the season. “He was just in a lot of pain and still is, Yankee Manager Aaron Boone said. “Just on the side here, he’ll get all the imaging and stuff tomorrow, but still in quite a bit of pain.”
There was some question as to whether or not the Yankees would resign the impending free agent, so his future with the team is in limbo right now.
The NL Central leading Brewers pounded out 16 hits and were led by a couple of Yankee killers. Willy Adames was 2 for 4 with a HR and three RBIs while Carlos Santana was 3 for 5 with two runs scored and 2 RBIs.
Adames used to torment the Yankees when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. The 28-year old shortstop has 9 home runs and 23 RBIs in 27 career games against the Yankees.
Santana played a lot against the Yankees, including 2 post season series, while he was with Cleveland. The switch hitter who is in his 15th Major League season, has 47 RBIs in 76 games against the Yankees.
The Brewers broke open a 2-2 tie with three runs in the 7th.
Andruw Monasterio led off with a double off of Brito into the left field corner. After Christian Yelich bounced out to first to advance the runner to third, Jonathan Loaisiga was brought in to face William Contreras, who stroked a single to left to score the go ahead run.
Contreras took off for second as Loaisiga fell asleep and didn’t step off in time to get what should’ve been an easy out at second. Santana lined an RBI single to right to score Contreras as the Brewers took a 4-2 lead. Bauers’ throw home from right field got away as Santana took second on the throwing error.
Adames then blooped a double down the right field line to score Santana for a 5-2 lead.
Greg Weissert relieved Loaisiga and had a rough 8th inning as the Brewers scored three more times to break the game open. The Yankee reliever faced eight batters and gave up three runs on five hits. Monasterio’s two run double made it 7-2 and he scored on Santana’s second RBI single in two innings.
The positive news that came out of this game came off the bat of Jasson Dominguez. The neophyte slugged a two run homer off of Brewers starter Colin Rea in the third inning to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
After Aaron Judge singled with one out, Dominguez lined a 2-2 cutter over the right center field wall for the 4th home run of his young career. The 20-year old became the youngest player in the modern era (post-1900) to hit 4 home runs in his first 7 career games.
“The Martian” came to the big leagues with a reputation of controlling the strike zone and he has shown that so far in his limited time. One of those good at bats led to a walk in the sixth and then Dominguez stole second for his first stolen base of his career. “That’s all we’ve seen [good at bats], that’s what we saw all spring long,” Boone said. “That’s been his M-O throughout his career. As he’s gotten better and better as a guy that really has that strike zone recognition.”
Austin Wells started behind the plate and was 0 for 3. The Brewers had three steals against the young catcher (including that one where Loasiga had a brain freeze) but they were really stolen on the Yankee pitchers who are slow to the plate.
Wells has been an eyewitness to the exploits of the Martian. “It’s really cool to see him going up there and crushing the ball and getting pitches to hit,” Wells said. “Super proud of him, he’s handling it really well and kickin’ some butt so it’s really cool to see.”
Other than that Dominguez home run, the offense could only produce a total of three hits. The Yankees were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position, six left on base. Numbers that have become the norm for this year’s team from the batter’s box.
With 21 games remaining, the focus will be on Dominguez, Wells, Pereira and Peraza as the Yankees hope their minor league system has provided some answers for the numerous questions facing this team in the off season.