Severino dominates, Didi homers twice in rout

April 16th, 2018

NEW YORK -- settled under the final out of the sixth inning, a routine fly ball off the bat of , and the outfielder chuckled. Approaching in the dugout at the conclusion of yet another scoreless frame, he told the hurler, "Man, it's too easy for you."
Supported by Didi Gregorius' second two-homer game of the season and a historic Judge dinger, Severino seemed to have everything working in a dominant effort, helping the Yankees roll to a 12-1 victory over the Marlins on Monday evening at Yankee Stadium.
"We feed off that energy," Judge said. "He just attacks hitters. He goes out there and does his stuff. All of his pitches were working tonight. He just makes it look too easy."

Severino held Miami hitless until Rojas' fourth-inning double, and that went as the only knock of the right-hander's 86-pitch effort. He picked up his third victory and entertained a crowd of 32,535 with an eight-strikeout, one-walk gem.
"I was feeling good," Severino said. "I was consistent with my breaking pitches. I thought in my last outing, they were right in the middle. I worked on that in the bullpen and threw my changeup."

Eight Yankees starters recorded a hit in the romp. The lone exception was designated hitter , who heard boos as he went 0-for-3 with a walk, hit by pitch and two strikeouts against his former club.
"It wasn't that weird," Stanton said. "I think once I go to Miami, it'll be pretty weird for me. It's just good to see the guys and obviously get a good win, for sure."
With his Marlins checking into The Bronx for a brief Interleague set, Derek Jeter opted not to make the trek to his old stomping grounds, saying that it would present an "awkward situation" to root against his former team. The Captain probably made the right call.
The Yankees hammered their former left-hander , who served up five runs in 2 1/3 innings. and picked up first-inning RBIs before Judge hit his fourth homer in the second. The homer was the 60th of Judge's career in his 197th game played, making him the fastest Major Leaguer to ever reach the mark.

raked a two-run double in the third to wrap the scoring off Smith. With summoned from the Miami bullpen, Gregorius cleared the right-field wall in the fourth inning for a two-run shot and New York pulled away with four runs in the fifth, highlighted by Sanchez's two-run single.

Gregorius' second homer, a seventh-inning shot to the right-field bullpen off , established the Yankees as the first Major League team to record six individual multi-homer games within the first 15 contests of a season.
"It's the guys in front of me," Gregorius said. "They give you confidence. There's always guys on base, so you want to drive them in to get the run in. It's one of those things that helps each other. That's the main thing."

SOUND SMART
Judge extended his hitting streak to 12 games while etching his name into the history books with his second-inning homer off Smith, surpassing Mark McGwire of the 1987-88 Athletics as the fastest player to reach 60 career home runs. McGwire hit his 60th in his 202nd career game.
"He sets the tone," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "His at-bat quality has been through the roof every time, whether he makes an out, whether he gets on base, whether he goes deep. Whatever it is, the pitcher has got to work really hard and make all of his best pitches if you're going to retire him. It seems like time and time again, he just grinds you down." More >

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
was robbed of an RBI in the sixth inning when his two-out liner toward center field clipped second-base umpire Bill Welke, who was hobbled and fell to the infield dirt. Welke remained in the game, but had to return to second base due to the dead ball. Judge grounded out to end the inning.

HE SAID IT
"You're still in the big leagues. You're still on the Major League team. You can't really feel bad for anybody that's living their dream here. You keep playing well, you'll find you can wind up wherever you want to be."
-- Stanton, on his former Marlins teammates
UP NEXT
The Yankees conclude their two-game Interleague set with the Marlins tonight at 6:35 p.m. ET, sending right-hander to the mound. Tanaka picked up the victory in his last start at Boston despite allowing six earned runs in five innings. Left-hander will start for Miami.