Ace in a hole

Brutal Sevy arrives late, exits early in lousy outing at worst time

The Yankees needed Luis Severino to pitch like the All-Star he was in the first half, but instead he delivered a clunker in a big spot.

THIS night went sideways in so many ways for the Yankees, too many to enumerate in this tidy little Post column.

Yet Exhibit A might just be the oddity of Luis Severino’s news conference after his team suffered a historic 16-1 beating at the hands of the Red Sox in American League Division Series Game 3.

As many questions as Severino faced about his lousy pitching Monday night, he received just as many about … his pregame preparation?

Welcome to Warmupgate.

Or maybe not. Perhaps Severino got knocked around for reasons other than when he began warming up, and for sure Aaron Boone deserves the primary blame for not pulling his All-Star sooner than he did, the rookie manager’s tentativeness putting the Yankees in a 2-1 hole in this best-of-five battle. Veteran CC Sabathia will try to pick up his younger teammates and extend this season on the brink Tuesday night when he gets the ball against New Jersey native Rick Porcello of the Sawx.

Because Severino gave up six runs in three-plus innings, how- ever, a tidbit reported by TBS analyst Ron Darling — whom we know better here as the superb Mets broadcaster on SNY — gained significant traction, and it drew a blessing from the Yankees’ own network, YES, and its analyst, John Flaherty.

Darling, who of course pitched for the Mets, Expos and A’s in the 1980s and ’90s, reported Severino didn’t start warming up in the bullpen until 7:32 p.m., 10 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, an unusually late time to get going.

Flaherty, in an on-air statement circulated by YES’ public-relations official, said, “There is no way you can go on a big league bullpen mound eight minutes before the scheduled first pitch and expect to be ready.” The Post communicated with two veteran officials not involved in the series, both with experience in this realm, and both independently agreed a warm-up time so close to first pitch seemed unusual.

Yet the Yankees insisted Severino didn’t veer from his normal course.

“How does he know what time I normally go out?” an agitated Severino asked of Darling, with whom he wasn’t familiar. Added Severino: “I go [to the bullpen] 20 minutes before the game, I play catch and then I always get on the mound 10 minutes before the game.”

“To me, it’s his normal routine,” catcher Gary Sanchez said. “I was out there warming him up myself.”

“He had plenty of warm-up,” Boone said. “He had what he intended to go down there and get done, and [pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] said he was able to get through his normal routine, where he faces a couple hitters and everything. So it wasn’t an issue.”

Said Rothschild: “I think that’s a little bit blown out of proportion. In the playoffs, the routine is always [different] because of introductions and everything. He does a lot inside and he comes out a little bit later than most starters but … he did the routine that he normally does and he actually warmed up pretty well.”

Rothschild added: “The prob- lem occurred in the third inning, not in the first inning, so if there was a difference in his warm-ups, he’d already thrown 44 pitches when all this stuff happened.”

Well, while Severino did put up a zero in the first inning, he hardly dominated. To the contrary, he gave starting center fielder Brett Gardner quite the workout, making him chase down two flyballs to the warning track (by Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts). His fastball, which averaged 98 miles per hour against the A’s last week in his strong AL wild-card game outing, dropped to 97 mph, as per Brooks Baseball’s Pitch f/x tool.

The key problem, Severino said, was not his fastball velocity but rather his command.

“When I don’t have that confidence in my fastball, I have to go to my secondary pitches,” he said.

And the Red Sox squared up nearly everything he threw, putting up one run in the second and two in the third and loading the bases with no outs in the fourth before Boone finally yanked Severino.

“He certainly didn’t seem as electric as his last time out,” Boone said.

Nothing went as well as the last time for anyone in pinstripes. It would behoove them greatly for many reasons, the eradication of Warmupgate among them, to ensure Game 4 doesn’t become the last time they play baseball in 2018.