New York Yankees

Deadline looms as Yanks, Tigers begin series (Jul 31, 2017)

Published Jul. 30, 2017 11:33 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

AP

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers may make some changes to their rosters by the time the non-waiver trade deadline comes and goes on Monday afternoon.

Two players not changing teams are young pitchers Luis Severino and Michael Fulmer.

Severino will pitch for the Yankees while Fulmer starts for the Tigers in the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium on Monday.

Severino will deliver his first pitch a little over three hours after the deadline passes at 4 p.m. EDT. He will be looking to extend the best three-start stretch of his career.

The right-hander has not allowed an earned run in career-high 18 innings. He has surrendered only one earned run in his past 27 innings since giving up a three-run homer to Milwaukee's Domingo Santana in the first inning on July 8.

Severino (7-4, 3.03 ERA) began the second half by pitching well against two aces, Boston's Chris Sale and Seattle's Felix Hernandez. Then he generated some ace talk of his own by allowing two runs, both unearned, on three hits and striking out nine in seven innings last Wednesday in a win over the Cincinnati Reds.

"(The term 'ace' is) thrown around loosely these days, but for our team, he is," said CC Sabathia, who added he was not surprised and referred to Severino's stuff as "electric."

Severino's recent success is occurring after he was 0-8 as a starting pitcher last season as he dealt with a demotion to the minors and triceps injury.

The right-hander is fifth in the American League with 145 strikeouts.

Severino's only start against the Tigers was April 8, 2016, in Detroit. He allowed three runs and 10 hits in five innings and threw 95 pitches in a game where the temperature at first pitch was 38 degrees.

Fulmer knows something about the significance of pitching on July 31. Two years ago, he was acquired by Detroit shortly before the deadline for Yoenis Cespedes.

He won the 2016 Rookie of the Year award by going 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA in 26 starts, spanning 159 innings. After becoming Detroit's first Rookie of the Year since Verlander in 2006, he is 10-8 with a 3.35 ERA this year.

On Tuesday, he recorded a 17th quality start by allowing three runs and eight hits in eight innings of a 3-1 loss over the Kansas City Royals.

Fulmer lost his second consecutive start, and he owns a 4.34 ERA in three starts since the break. Despite the defeat, Fulmer felt great about his stuff.

"That's probably the most swings and misses I've had all year," Fulmer said. "I feel like ... I finally had all three pitches working together in the same game."

Everything was working for Fulmer in his only previous appearance against the Yankees. On June 12, 2016, in New York, he allowed two hits in six scoreless innings of a 4-1 win. Only Austin Romine and Aaron Hicks managed hits against him.

Detroit took two of three from the Yankees last season, marking the first time it won a series in New York since sweeping three games in 2008.

The Yankees saw their six-game winning streak end with a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. They added left-hander Jaime Garcia before losing for the sixth time in 17 games since the All-Star break.

Detroit began the second half with four wins in five games, but since July 18, the Tigers are 4-7. The slump pushed Detroit into becoming sellers and possibly trading Justin Verlander.

Verlander is not scheduled to pitch in the New York series as he pitched in Sunday and threw six shutout innings in a 13-1 win over the Houston Astros.

"Honestly, I don't know what's going to happen," Verlander said.

Verlander will make the trip to New York and see if Justin Upton can follow up his six-RBI game with another strong showing or if Fulmer can retire Aaron Judge.

Upton was 4-for-5 Sunday and is hitting .361 (22-for-61) since the All-Star break.

Judge was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts and is batting .156 (9-for-57) since the All-Star break.

"He's just not as hot as he was before," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Judge, "but that's normal in this game. I think the expectations are so high. For a while, people were talking Triple Crown, and that's really unfair because how often does that happen? But I think it's just part of the game."

share

Get more from New York Yankees Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

New York Yankees

Detroit Tigers

Major League Baseball