Yankees Pitcher Luis Severino: ‘I Feel Like the Worst Pitcher in the Game’

Yankees pitcher Luis Severino got rocked by the Baltimore Orioles in a nationally televised game on Sunday night, dropping his record to 2-5 with a career-worst 7.49 ERA. 

The right-hander lasted only 3⅓ innings, giving up all nine earned runs in a 9-3 loss at Camden Yards. The Orioles jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning and tagged Severino for 10 hits — including a three-run homer — before chasing him from the game.

“Right now, I feel like the worst pitcher in the game," Severino said afterward. “Nothing that I do is working.”

Hitters are squaring up their sweet spots, barreling Severino’s offerings at a 10.9% rate (the worst of his career). Severino is also allowing hard-hit balls (meaning an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher) at a 46.8% clip, putting him in the bottom 5% of MLB pitchers this season.

With no outs in the first inning on Sunday night, Adam Frazier pulled Severino’s 95-mph first-pitch fastball over the heart of the plate and launched it 395 feet over the right-field wall for a three-run homer and 6-0 lead. Against Severino’s four-seam fastball this season, opponents are hitting .362 with 12 home runs.

“I was terrible,” said Severino, who sits in MLB’s 18th percentile of strikeouts, having dropped from 27.7% in 2022 and a career-best 36.4% in 2021. “Nothing was working today. My fastball command was leaking all over the place.”

Severino throws three other pitches (slider, cutter, change-up) but relies on his four-seam fastball 52.5% of the time. There has been recent speculation that the 29-year-old, who could be on the verge of losing his spot in the Yankees’ rotation, might be tipping his pitches. Turning things around could come down to better diversifying his offerings. 

He appeared to be tinkering with that approach in Sunday night’s loss—even if it was out of necessity. Of his 44 strikeouts before Sunday night, more than half (25) had come on four-seam fastballs. Of his five strikeouts against the Orioles on Sunday, two were sliders and two were change-ups.