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<p>It was just about a year ago when Luis Severino started turning heads with regularity in the Yankees organization with his dominant performances in the minor leagues.</p><p>He was so extraordinary that he lasted just 11 starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before being summoned to New York where he spent the rest of the season in the rotation and was looking like a piece of the team&#8217;s long-term rotation plans.</p><p>But the 22-year-old hit a speed bump this season in the Majors, going winless in seven starts with an ERA of 7.36.</p><p>Now, after getting activated off the disabled list, Severino&#8217;s back with the RailRiders trying to regain the form that made him a force in his entire minors career.</p><p>&#8220;I hope I don&#8217;t stay long,&#8221; Severino said after his start on Friday night at PNC Field for the RailRiders. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to work hard and work on my pitches and get back over there.</p><p>&#8220;I want to be over there. I want to throw over there. But I know what I have to do. I have to work. It&#8217;s better to get here and work on my pitches.&#8221;</p><p>It won&#8217;t be that easy.</p><p>The right-hander got off to a flourishing start in his outing retiring the first nine Columbus Clippers to step to the plate. Then, he struggled and couldn&#8217;t get out of the fourth inning being pulled with two outs after giving up three runs, all of which were put on via walk.</p><p>What the Yankees and manager Joe Girardi said they wanted to see from Severino was him working on his changeup a little more. But that wasn&#8217;t the problem on Friday night as nearly a 30-minute rest in the dugout during a six-run inning for SWB got him a bit rusty.</p><p>In fact, Severino said that he only threw about &#8220;four or five&#8221; changeups. Catcher Kyle Higashioka said he was calling them a lot because they both knew it&#8217;s something Severino has to work on.</p><p>&#8220;We were calling it, maybe even some situations where we wouldn&#8217;t have called it we were calling it anyway because we knew he had to work on it,&#8221; Higashioka said. &#8220;He has good enough stuff where he doesn&#8217;t need it and won&#8217;t get lit up (but) he showed really positive signs of it.&#8221;</p><p>SWB manager Al Pedrique managed Severino last year in Double-A Trenton and in 2014 with High-A Tampa. In those seasons under Pedrique, Severino was always controlling things with high strikeout rates, low walk rates and not allowing opposing batters much of anything.</p><p>Pedrique knew back then, the youngster was going to be a star. Now, he said Severino just needs to go back to what has worked in the past.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a kid that you can tell he belongs in the big leagues,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;He&#8217;s got great tools. And this year you can tell that he&#8217;s tuned his stuff more. I think he understands what type of pitcher he can be, a power pitcher. So it&#8217;s just a matter of time before he feels comfortable again and find the rhythm.&#8221;</p><p>Even though he wants to be back in New York helping the Major League team succeed, Severino is not taking the demotion as bad as he could, especially after his performance with the Yankees this season.</p><p>&#8220;You can tell he loves the game and will do anything that you ask him to do. He knows that he needs to get better. He needs to be established as a Major League pitcher. that&#8217;s not a concern,&#8221; Pedrique said. &#8220;His work ethic is off the charts. So we&#8217;re hoping that he stays healthy. If he does, he will be back in the Big Leagues soon.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">New York Yankees&#8217; Luis Severino delivers a pitch during a game last season against the Chicago White Sox. After struggling this season with the Yankees, Severino is back with the RailRiders trying to turn things around so he can return to New York. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_severino-2-.jpg</photo0><caption0>New York Yankees&#8217; Luis Severino delivers a pitch during a game last season against the Chicago White Sox. After struggling this season with the Yankees, Severino is back with the RailRiders trying to turn things around so he can return to New York. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>drosengrant@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dave Rosengrant at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @tldrosengrant</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Yankees’ Luis Severino still focused despite demotion