What Aces Do

Look at Saturday's Yankees/Rangers box score and you might first notice a no-decision for Luis Severino. While technically correct, that notation offers zero insight into the performance by the Yankees young ace. On an afternoon in Texas where his teammates could not solve the mystery of Andrew Cashner, Sevy kept the Yankees in the game with a near-dominating performance -- striking out 10 and allowing just one hit, a Brett Nicholas 5th inning double that drove in the Rangers only run. He became the first Yankees pitcher to allow one hit or fewer over seven innings since Michael Pineda three years ago this month.
The Yankee bats finally woke up against the Texas bullpen, as they pulled out a 3-1 victory. While it got Severino "off the hook," he left too early to be credited with the win. But that takes nothing away from how well he pitched -- and more importantly giving his club a huge lift after a demoralizing loss the night before when Masahiro Tanaka could not hold a four-run lead.

Heading into the final three weeks of the season still holding the top spot in the American League Wild Card chase, there's plenty of talk about who would start that play-in game that opens the post-season. Seeing Severino's dominance Saturday and season-long excellence, I don't think there' much doubt that he'd be the man in the spotlight on that October night -- should the Yanks get there.
These photos of Severino are from the Yankees/Tigers game on July 31st.

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