BALTIMORE — A lot for a turnaround for Luis Severino.
And a lot for momentum for the Yankees.
Severino had one other disastrous outing, giving up six runs before recording an out and never giving the Yankees a likelihood as they fell to the Orioles 9-3 to drop the series on Sunday night at Camden Yards.
Coming off the form of game they believed they were able to playing more of on Saturday night, an 8-3 win, the Yankees (55-50) returned to playing the form of game that has left them in last place within the AL East.
As such, they remained an inconsistent team with a murky outlook ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
The primary-place Orioles (64-41), meanwhile, continued to look the part and dealt the Yankees a series loss on an evening when Aaron Judge was out of the lineup due to workload management upon his return from the injured list.
But not even Judge could have solved what plagued the Yankees on this one.
After the seven-run first inning, Severino went on to present up a career-high nine earned runs across 3 ¹/₃ innings, together with his ERA rising to 7.49 across his first 12 starts of the season.
July has been especially brutal for Severino, a pending free agent. In five starts this month, Severino posted an 11.22 ERA, getting tagged for 43 hits (including seven home runs) across 21 ²/₃ innings.
And that’s even after his last two starts before Sunday had offered hope, as he gave up 4 runs in 11 ²/₃ combined innings against the Angels and Royals.
With the Blue Jays losing earlier within the day, the Yankees missed a likelihood to make up ground within the AL wild-card standings, remaining 3 ½ games back of the ultimate playoff spot.
Without Judge, the Yankees went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.
In addition they struck out a season-high 18 times, led by Anthony Rizzo going 0-for-5 with five strikeouts.
The Orioles ambushed Severino from his first pitch, which Adley Rutschman ripped for a single.
Gunnar Henderson followed with a single of his own before Anthony Santander and Ryan O’Hearn belted back-to-back doubles to make it 3-0.
Then after Severino walked Austin Hays, his first pitch to Adam Frazier ended up beyond the right-field wall.
Frazier crushed a 95 mph fastball at the highest of the zone for a three-run home run for the 6-0 lead.
Severino finally recorded his first out of the night on the seventh batter he faced.
Still, the Orioles went on to bat around, with Rutschman capping off the scoring with an RBI single.
It marked the second time this season that Severino has been shelled for a seven-run inning by the Orioles.
The opposite got here within the third inning on July 6 at Yankee Stadium.
The Orioles went on so as to add a pair of runs within the fourth inning off Severino before he was put out of his misery.
The one saving grace for the Yankees was that Ron Marinaccio and Albert Abreu combined to toss the ultimate 4 ²/₃ innings after Severino was bounced, saving the Yankees’ high-leverage relievers for Monday’s series opener against the Rays in The Bronx.
