Luis Severino was far from his best Thursday — and it didn’t matter, even against Seattle ace lefty James Paxton. The Yankees got to Paxton…
Luis Severino was far from his best Thursday — and it didn’t matter, even against Seattle ace lefty James Paxton.
The Yankees got to Paxton for four runs in the bottom of the first and then held on for a 4-3 win to close out a homestand in The Bronx and complete a three-game sweep of the Mariners.
Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar both hammered two-run homers in the first and Giancarlo Stanton was robbed of another in the inning when Mitch Haniger brought one back from over the wall in center.
Staked to a 4-0 lead after the first, Severino wasn’t able to get out of the sixth, but he survived long enough to earn another victory. The right-hander matched a season high by giving up eight hits, while walking one and striking out five — tying a season low.
Severino got into trouble in the second, when he gave up a long, two-run homer to Kyle Seager to make it 4-2.
The Yankees had a chance to pad their lead in the third when they loaded the bases with two out, but Austin Romine — starting a game against his brother Andrew for the first time — struck out.
Severino gave up a leadoff double to Mike Zunino in the fifth and fell behind Romine 3-0 before getting out of the inning unscathed.
He wasn’t as fortunate in the sixth.
After consecutive one-out singles, Severino got Ryon Healy to pop to third, but ex-Yankee Ben Gamel delivered an RBI single to make it 4-3 and knock Severino out of the game.
David Robertson came on to face Zunino, who flied to right. The right-hander pitched around a leadoff single in the seventh.
Judge reached on a four-pitch walk by Chasen Bradford to open the bottom of the inning. After Stanton lined to left, Didi Gregorius singled on a popup to shallow left that left fielder Denard Span and Romine bungled. A hustling Judge just made it to second.
But Gleyber Torres struck out and Andujar grounded into a forceout.
Dellin Betances entered to start the eighth.
The right-hander was unscored upon in his previous 11 appearances, giving up just a hit and six walks, while fanning 20 over 11 innings.
On Thursday, he struck out Nelson Cruz and Seager before walking Healy on four pitches. Austin Romine then threw out pinch-runner Guillermo Heredia trying to steal second to end the inning.
Aroldis Chapman continued his brilliant June with his 10th save of the month, extending his scoreless streak to 10 1/3 innings.
With pinch-runner Chris Herrmann on second, Chapman got Dee Gordon swinging to end it.
