BALTIMORE — Maybe the Yankees picked the right day to give Aaron Judge a breather.
The finale at Camden Yards got ugly and noncompetitive quickly.
Luis Severino allowed seven first-inning runs in a disastrous beginning to Sunday’s rubber game against the Orioles, the AL East leaders who have looked the part.
The Yankees, while still in the wild-card hunt and with Judge back on the active roster, certainly looked like the last-place AL East team during the onslaught.
The Orioles were up 6-0 after Severino faced six batters. Young stars Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson opened with singles before Anthony Santander jumped on a middle-of-the-plate slider for an RBI double.
After just three batters and nine pitches from Severino, pitching coach Matt Blake had to pay a visit to the mound.
His advice did not work.
Ryan O’Hearn followed with a two-run double before Severino walked Austin Hays on five pitches.
Adam Frazier got a down-the-middle fastball that he blasted 395 feet to right for a three-run homer, all but burying the Yankees as Orioles fans cheered and launched “Yankees suck” chants.
Severino finally recorded an out, striking out Ramon Urias, but then could not help himself.
Jordan Westburg hit a comebacker that deflected off Severino’s glove, ruled an infield single.
Westburg stole second and then scored the seventh and final run of the inning on Rutschman’s second single of the frame.
By the time Severino could walk back to the dugout, he had thrown 38 pitches in the inning in the latest troubling turn to the right-hander’s season.
He threw 3 ½ innings before the Yankees turned to their bullpen.
Severino, who has been so good for so much of his Yankees career, will be a free agent after this season and could be entering the market on the worst stretch of his life.
The 29-year-old entered play with a 6.46 ERA in 11 starts, a number that has risen.
Severino allowed seven runs apiece in a pair of outings to begin the month, but had appeared to bounce back in solid efforts against the Angels and Royals.
With Nestor Cortes on a rehab assignment and the Yankees thus far unwilling to try a six-man rotation, Severino’s days as a starter could be numbered.
