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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NEW YORK \u2014 Two pitches into the fourth inning of 21-year-old Yankees prospect Luis Severino\u2019s major league debut, Red Sox designated hitter and established Yankees killer David Ortiz welcomed the pitcher to the show with a towering home run into the rightfield bleachers. He\u2019d labor through 23 more pitches in the frame, but Severino regained his focus quickly enough to rebound with a strikeout of Hanley Ramirez.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ortiz\u2019s homer was the second and final hit Severino allowed on the night. He made his Yankees debut knowing that one bad performance wouldn\u2019t put him back on a bus to the minor leagues. But just for safe measure, Severino wowed the New York fans and coaching staff with his electric stuff Wednesday, validating the hype that surrounded him during his successful tenure in the minors.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI thought he did a pretty good job tonight,\u201D Yankees manager Joe&amp;nbsp;Girardi&amp;nbsp;said after the Yankees' 2\u20131 loss. \u201CI thought he made some big pitches in some 3\u20132 counts. I told you I didn\u2019t think the surroundings would affect him a whole lot. He\u2019s got poise.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two-batter sequence in the fourth inning captured the essence of Severino\u2019s outing. He was in attack mode on the mound from his first pitch to his last, his aggressive style of pitching fueled by talent and confidence. Boston\u2019s bats had trouble turning his pitches around all night; Ortiz\u2019s moonshot and Ramirez\u2019s double were the only pitches that were really hit well. The rest produced a medley of swings and misses, foul balls and toothless fly-outs.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 &lt;strong&gt;JAFFE: Will injuries derail postseason runs for Pirates, Giants?&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThat young kid, he\u2019s got good stuff,\u201D Ortiz said. \u201CI think he\u2019s gonna be pretty good. He\u2019s got a good fastball, he\u2019s got that cutter, a changeup. I think at the beginning of the game he was kind of missing location a bit, but other than that, he was very explosive.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, there were plenty of positives in Severino\u2019s debut. He threw 94 pitches in his five innings of work, the vast majority being fastballs between 94-97 mph. He gave up two runs (one earned) on two hits, walked no one and struck out seven. According to the Yankees, no American League pitcher had ever kept a team to two hits while walking none and striking out seven in his MLB debut.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI felt the same way I felt in Double A and Triple A,\u201D Severino said. \u201CSame baseball. All I was trying to do was get people out. I wasn\u2019t trying to strike out anybody, just get people out. Sometimes I made the pitch, sometimes I didn\u2019t. When you make a mistake here, you pay for it.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There were also moments where you were reminded that he was making his major league debut. He paced around the mound between nearly every pitch, frequenting the rosin bag and keeping his spikes immaculate, he fell behind in the count often and he struggled to finish off hitters at times. Even so, Severino pitched more than well enough to win, and if the Yankees\u2019 red-hot offense had scored half of the 8.3 runs per game it had averaged over the last 12 games, he\u2019d likely have got the victory. Instead, New York managed just five hits and one run against knuckleball-throwing Red Sox starter Steven Wright.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHe\u2019s been in baseball long enough to know that those things happen,\u201D Girardi said of Severino. \u201CIt\u2019s just so hard to predict what\u2019s going to happen with a knuckleballer. Unfortunately we weren\u2019t able to do much.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;\u200B&lt;strong&gt;CORCORAN: Picking best single-game performances by a hitter in 2015&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yankees righthander Michael Pineda won\u2019t return from the disabled list until sometime in September at the earliest, so regardless of the results, the Luis Severino experiment is going to get its chance to play out. Before the game, GM Brian Cashman and Girardi&amp;nbsp;reinforced as much. Had Boston\u2019s offense torched Severino on Wednesday, he was still going to get the ball in Cleveland on Monday. By the same token, one good start doesn\u2019t write the book on him either. But it does start the first chapter on a high note.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CYou expect the adrenaline to be a little bit better in the next start, the nerves to be a little bit better in his next start, and maybe go a little deeper for us,\u201D Girardi said. \u201CBut he made a bunch of really good pitches. He\u2019s got a live arm.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By standing firm at the trade deadline and treating Severino\u2019s call-up in the way that it is, New York is displaying the kind of patience with its latest young stud that it has lacked in recent times. In the past, the Yankees have lamented not having a chip of Severino\u2019s value to land a big player at the trade deadline. And the last time a top Yankees pitching prospect made it to the big leagues, the organization showed exactly what not to do in handling young pitching talent, as Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain were bounced between the rotation and the bullpen. So far, the team seems to have learned from those mistakes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;\u200B\u200B&lt;strong&gt;CORCORAN: Top candidates to be traded before August waiver deadline&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI feel really good,\u201D Severino said. \u201CI\u2019m very happy to be here.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If Wednesday night was any indication, the Yankees are going to be very happy about that, too. In the long term, holding on to&amp;nbsp;Severino could pay dividends for years to come.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/08/06/luis-severino-debut-yankees-red-sox>