There was just over an hour left at the 2015 trade deadline and the Yankees had to do something. Yes, the Yankees held a six-game lead in the AL East on July 31, 2015 in a season in which they weren’t expected to be competitive, but they needed to make a move to hold that lead over the final two months. Up until that point, the only player the Yankees had acquired was Dustin Ackley (and what an acquisition that turned out to be) while the Blue Jays went out and traded for seemingly everyone and anyone who was available.

I was on the Metro North from Manhattan to Connecticut to visit my parents for the weekend when the news broke that the Yankees had called up when Luis Severino. After eight starts in Double-A, he went 7-0 with a 1.91 ERA in 11 Triple-A starts to earn the call. The Yankees were finally ready to show off their future as an answer to both their need for starting pitching and the Blue Jays’ deadline trade for David Price.

In a move the Yankees never would have allowed in the previous 15 seasons, the 21-year-old Severino made his Major League debut on Aug. 5 against the Red Sox. He pitched well, going five innings and allowing one earned run on two hits and no walks with seven strikeouts, and finished the season with a 2.89 ERA over 11 starts. He was my pick to start the wild-card game against the Astros, or at least be part of the formula in the game. The only four people I wanted to touch the ball in that game after it was decided Masahiro Tanaka would start were Severino, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter as the offense couldn’t do anything against Dallas Keuchel.

Severino was given a rotation spot for 2016 and pitched himself off the team after his May 13 disaster against the White Sox (2.2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR). That performance dropped him to 0-6 with a 7.46 ERA in seven starts and he went to Triple-A until the end of July. When he returned, he allowed one earned run in 8 1/3 innings out of the bullpen and was given a chance to start again, but after allowing 12 earned runs and 16 baserunners in eight innings, it was back to Triple-A. When he returned as a September call-up, it was as a reliever. And once again, as a reliever, he was dominant, allowing one earned run in 15 innings.

Severino’s weird 2016 season gave way for all of the idiot Yankees fans to start to call for him to be a reliever, completely disregarding what he did in 11 starts in 2015 and only focusing on nine starts in 2016. It’s the same way those same fans are calling for Austin Romine to start over Gary Sanchez, as if 2016 and 2017 Gary Sanchez never existed, and also as if 2011-2017 Austin Romine never existed.

Thankfully, the Yankees front office is more intelligent than most fans and stuck with Severino as a starter. And thankfully, Severino reached out to his idol Pedro Martinez, so that 2016 would never happen again.

Since the start of 2017, Severino is 24-8 with a 2.68 ERA and 348 strikeouts in 292 1/3 innings. Last season, Severino gave up two earned runs or less in 20 of his 31 starts. This season he’s done the same in 12 of his 15 starts.

On Saturday, Severino nonchalantly shut out the Rays for eight innings, allowing three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in a 4-1 win. The win improved Severino’s record to 10-2 on the season and the eight scoreless innings lowered his ERA to 2.09.

There was nothing about his start on Saturday that was surprising. I knew he was going to shut down the Rays and either shut them out or come close to it. I knew he was going to give the pitching staff length and give the bullpen a day off. Most importantly, I knew the Yankees were going to win.

Severino is a pleasure to watch. Every five days, I know the Yankees are going to win, and I know I’m going to enjoy watching the game. I’m not going to see any nibbling, 30-pitch innings or four-inning starts. For a rotation that has to worry about Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow and inconsistency (and now hamstrings too), CC Sabathia’s knee and command, Sonny Gray’s personal catcher needs and astronomical WHIP and two rookies in Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga, no one ever has to worry about Severino. He’s a true No. 1 starter and one of the few aces in the game in an era where five innings is considered enough.

From 2009-2012, CC Sabathia was as close to a sure-thing every five days the Yankees ever had and before his elbow injury in 2014, Masahiro Tanaka was the same. Now Severino is that sure-thing with the Yankees going 33-13 in his starts since the beginning of last season.

I’m happy the Yankees didn’t trade Luis Severino at the 2015 deadline for David Price or at any other time for any other player, and I’m happy Pedro Martinez decided to help the team he could never beat.

Back on May 4, I wrote The Yankees Are Even Better Than They Have Played. Back then, the Yankees were 22-10. Here I am today, writing once again how the Yankees are even better than they have played. Yes, the Yankees and their Major League-best 42-19 record are better than they have played.

The eight reasons why the Yankees were actually better than they had played I gave nearly six weeks ago were:

1. Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t been anywhere close to his 2017 NL MVP self.
2. Gary Sanchez was basically an automatic out for the first two weeks of the season.
3. Brett Gardner continuing to bat leadoff despite having a lower on-base percentage than Austin Romine.
4. Neil Walker getting regular playing time even though he is batting .171/.233/.195.
5. Sonny Gray being bad and not lasting more than 4 2/3 innings in four of six starts.
6. Greg Bird playing zero games so far.
7. The bullpen being untrustworthy for three weeks.
8. The injury bug running through the Yankees.

A few of those reasons are still reasons, while most of them have been fixed. But yes, a team with a .689 winning percentage that is on a 33-10 run can be better than they have been. Here’s how that’s possible.

1. Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t been anywhere close to his 2017 NL MVP self. Yes, that was a problem in the May 4 edition and it’s still a problem now. Stanton is batting .244/.322/.487 with 15 home runs and 34 RBIs. Those aren’t the numbers I expected from the reigning NL MVP through 38 percent of the season. Stanton is on pace to finish the season with 40 home runs and 90 RBIs, which is a far cry from his 59 and 132 last season. Sure, there is an adjustment period for a new player on a new team in a new league facing new pitchers, but Stanton has been a huge disappointment for the most part this season. Everyone keeps saying “wait until he gets hot”, and now hat the weather is finally going to be warm consistently and he is growing accustomed to the pitchers in the AL, maybe the hot streak we are all waiting for is coming soon. But back on May 4, I thought the his two home run game against Dallas Keuchel and the Astros was the start of a hot streak and since then he has hit .248/.328/.496 with eight home runs and 15 RBIs in 134 plate appearances. To think, this team is 42-19 without the reigning NL MVP playing anywhere near his abilities …

2. Gary Sanchez was basically an automatic out for the first two weeks of the season, or the equivalent of about one-third of the games the Yankees had played when I wrote the May 4 edition. Not much has changed for the Yankees catcher. He has had his share of big moments like his game against David Price in Boston or his walk-off against Fernando Rodney or his three-run home run that led to Ken Giles punching himself in the face. But for the most part, Sanchez has continued to be an automatic out, and it’s not just bad luck like when he lined into a double play to end Sunday night’s loss to the Mets. It’s his approach at the plate, which continues to look lazy and undisciplined as he swings at every breaking ball low and away as if he hasn’t changed anything since he was exposed in the postseason. I have a hard time believing that Sanchez, who hit .283/.353/.567 with 53 home runs and 132 RBIs in his first 177 games in the majors, is now a .190/.291/.430 hitter. The Gary Sanchez we saw in 2016 and 2017 and against Corey Kluber and the Astros bullpen and at times this year is in there. Sanchez just needs to make the adjustments to find him. To think, this team is 49-12 despite the best catcher in baseball being non-existent for more than one-third of the season …

3. The last holdover from the May 4 edition is the injury bug. Earlier in the season, injuries forced Shane Robinson and Jace Peterson to not only be Yankees, but to start games for the Yankees. It sent Aaron Hicks and CC Sabathia, Jordan Montgomery, Adam Warren, Tommy Kahnle, Luis Cessa, Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney to the disabled list, and it prevented Greg Bird from opening the season with the team and Clint Frazier from being called up before any other outfielder. (It has also supposedly kept us from watching Jacoby Ellsbury play for the 2018 Yankees, so it hasn’t all been bad.) Every team has injuries, and thankfully, the Yankees have had the depth to cover up their injuries, but that depth is growing thin. Now that Montgomery has undergone Tommy John surgery and won’t be available until the second half of next season at the earliest and Masahiro Tanaka incredibly strained both of his hamstrings running the bases to go on the disabled list, the Yankees are in desperate need of starting pitching. Domingo German went from being day-to-day on having a rotation spot to being the No. 4 starter, leaving the Yankees with limited Major League-ready starting pitching options. To think, this team is 42-19 with so many injuries …

4. In the May 4 edition, I cited Greg Bird not yet playing as a reason the Yankees were better than they had played. But now it’s not about Bird playing, it’s about the way he is being used. Actually, it’s about the lineup as a whole. Since May 4, Brett Gardner has become Brett Gardner again, hitting .333/.408/.552, so his leadoff spot I questioned back then is no longer in jeopardy. Aaron Judge should continue to bat second because he has been the best hitter on the team for the second straight season. And now here’s where things need to change. Bird hasn’t done anything to prove he should bat third. Yes, he was good as a rookie back in 2015, and he was good at the end of last season and in the postseason. But Bird did miss all of 2016, nearly all of 2017 and the first two months of 2018, and since he has returned, he has hit .191/.255/.426. Maybe he is the best hitter on the team when he’s healthy like Judge has said, but right now he isn’t and it shouldn’t matter that he bats left-handed, he shouldn’t bat third. Put Stanton third and Sanchez fourth. Let the three big bats of Judge, Stanton and Sanchez bat 3-4-5. Give those three more than a game here and there to bat consecutively in the lineup. And stop batting Gleyber Torres ninth. And certainly stop batting him ninth AND HAVING A PITCHER BAT IN FRONT OF HIM. The kid is hitting .297/.356/.559 with 11 home runs in 42 games. To think, this team is 42-19 with the lineup being poorly constructed …

5. Speaking of the lineup, how is Aaron Hicks always batting sixth, and when Gardner gets a day off, how is Hicks batting first? Let me make this clear: Aaron Hicks isn’t good. I don’t know how many times I can say that and I’m running out of ways to say it. He’s a 28-year-old career .233/.318/.378 hitter, who is treated like he’s Bernie Williams. If the Yankees don’t want to let Gardner play center regularly and have Frazier play left then OK, let Hicks be your center fielder. But treat him like the light-hitting, no-power center fielder he is. He should be the one batting ninth every game and not Torres. I can’t believe Torres and Miguel Andujar continue to bat below Hicks in the lineup. To think, this team is 42-19 with Aaron Hicks being treated like he has more than four non-inside-the-park home runs this season …

The Yankees are already the best team in baseball. What are they going to be if their best players start playing to their career numbers and their lineup starts logically getting built? I want to find out.

Here is my annual “I Enjoy the Subway Series” proclamation. I do enjoy it. Over the course of 162 games with 19 of those games against the lowly Orioles, Rays and Blue Jays, it’s important to have some “meaningful” series. Not that the series against the Mets counts more than any other series, the way some baseball fans want you to believe that games in September count more than those in April. But it’s meaningful in the way that it breaks up the daily grind against the usual teams, especially in a season in which five teams are currently on pace to lose at least 100 games.

The Subway Series is fun. Maybe it doesn’t have the same appeal that it did when it started in 1997, but it’s still fun. Anyone who thinks otherwise should skip it and wait for the next time the Yankees play one of their opponents they already play 19 times.

The first half of this season’s Subway Series went well with a series win. But the Yankees were very close to losing all three games against a Mets team that looks like it might just go through the motions for the rest of the season. Two out of three is two out of three, but it was a little worrisome of how the Yankees won those two out of three with the offense disappearing for most of the weekend.

FRIDAY
Jacob deGrom as a Yankee is one of the only trades worth making to give up top prospects or Major League-ready players to bolster the rotation. Outside of Madison Bumgarner, who most likely won’t be available, deGrom is the next-best starting pitcher, who most likely won’t be available and most likely will never be available to the Yankees for as long as he is a Met.

deGrom showed why he is the Mets ace (8 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1 HR), not the always-injured Noah Syndergaard, and why he could be the difference-maker in the AL playoffs. I don’t think the Yankees need a difference-maker to win the AL East, I think they can easily win it with the team they have now. But winning the AL East isn’t the goal, and as it stands right now, the Astros have Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers Jr. in some order waiting in an ALCS rematch. The Yankees as of today have Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, Sonny Gray and Domingo German. I don’t think an ALCS rematch would go seven games again with the disparity in those rotations.

deGrom shut the Yankees down for the first 7 2/3 innings, allowing an unearned run on an error by Adrian Gonzalez (I wonder if he took the blame for it or blamed God like he did for the Red Sox’ September 2011 collapse). But with two outs and no one on in the seventh, a Gleyber Torres single followed by a Brett Gardner two-run home run gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead en route to their eventual 4-1 win.

deGrom has made 13 starts this season. He has won four of them. He took the loss on Friday against the Yankees despite going eight innings and allowing two earned runs. He has four no-decision in starts in which he pitched seven innings and allowed one run or less. And he has another no-decision from a start in which he went 7 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs with 12 strikeouts. He is 4-1 this season with a 1.57 ERA in 13 starts. I would feel bad for him if he wasn’t on the Mets.

He might not be on the Mets by July 31. The best thing the Mets could do is to trade both deGrom and Syndergaard and restock their team and minor-league system. The Mets 2015-16 window is closed, and while the Nationals’ window is also closing soon, the Braves and Phillies aren’t going anywhere for a while. The next time the Mets are ready to contend (if they ever are), deGrom and Syndergaard will be long past free agency and likely old men. Unfortunately, the Mets would rather not see the Yankees win or see their homegrown ace win with the Yankees than ever win themselves, so a trade is near impossible.

Masahiro Tanaka opposed deGrom, and aside from the leadoff home run to Brandon Nimmo to start his night, he was solid (5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 1 HR). Tanaka would have stayed in the game for the bottom half of the six if he didn’t get scoring from third like Chien-Ming Wang, injuring both hamstrings in the process and landing on the disabled list for at least a month. I’m very against pitchers still batting in Major League Baseball because of how ridiculous it is to ask a person, who likely hasn’t hit since their childhood, to try to do something that everyday hitters have a hard time doing. I’m not against it because pitchers get hurt running the bases, or just Yankees pitchers get hurt running the bases. It’s kind of embarrassing for a professional athlete, pitcher or not, to strain both hamstrings running the bases. Actually, it’s embarrssing for any person, not only a professional athlete. And not only that, but Tanaka also twisted his ankle stepping on home. Has he ever run before?

Gardner’s go-ahead home run was just another example of Gardner’s big-moment prowess. (Giancarlo Stanton’s insurance home run was just another example of his tack-on prowess.) Gardner has always been the streakiest hitter I ever seen, and this year has been no different:

March 29-April 16: .276/.391/.379

April 17-May 3: .100/.230/.100

May 4-June 10: .333/.408/.552

When Gardner is hot, he’s unstoppable, and when he’s cold, it looks like he should bat ninth or that the game has passed him by. In the eight inning against deGrom, he once again showed by he can always be trusted with the game on the line.

SATURDAY
Domingo German’s rotation spot was in jeopardy after he laid back-to-back eggs against the A’s and Rangers. But respectable starts against the Astros and Tigers kept him in the rotation, and now with Tanaka landing on the disabled list, he has a rotation spot for the foreseeable future.

The problem with German has been one inning in nearly every start (aside from his first start when he no-hit in the Indians for six innings). Against the A’s, he gave up five runs in the fifth inning and one run in his other four innings. Against the Rangers, he was just bad. Against the Astros, he gave up three runs (two earned) in the second and one run in his other 4 2/3 innings. Against the Tigers, he gave up two runs in the fourth and two runs in his other 5 2/3 innings. On Saturday, it was the first inning when he gave up three runs on two home runs.

After the three-run first, German settled down, like he usually does after a bad inning, pitching five shutout innings. The untouchable Gleyber Torres hit a solo home run off Steven Matz in the third to make it 3-1, and the he-better-not-get-traded Miguel Andujar continued his battle for AL Rookie of the Year with his teammate (now that Shohei Otani is likely done for the season) with a two-run home run in the sixth to tie the game. Aaron Judge broke the tie in the eighth when he hit former Yankee Anthony Swarzak’s first pitch for a solo home run. Like many former Yankees relievers, Swarzak owes his former team a few games, and the first of those was on Saturday night.

SUNDAY
It was understandable that the Yankees had to grind their way to a win against Jacob deGrom. It was somewhat understandable that they had to do the same in a game started by Matz. But with Luis Severino on the mound, going against Seth Lugo with an off day on Monday, it was completely unacceptable to lose the series finale.

Severino wasn’t at his best (5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 K, 1 HR) on Sunday night, but giving up two runs over five innings with the offense facing Lugo should have been enough for the Yankees to overcome. Instead, they managed just two hits (their only two baserunners) against Lugo in six innings, one hit against Robert Gsellman in two innings and one walk against Swarzak in the ninth. It was a very uninspiring performance from a team that had nowhere to travel other than their own homes after the game with an off day on Monday and a homestand on Tuesday awaiting them.

It would nice if Aaron Boone would pencil in the best possible lineup for one game. But if he’s not going to move Torres out of the 9-hole, can we at least get the best nine hitters in the lineup for two consecutive games? Judge was given the night off on Sunday against Lugo, only to be used a pinch hitter in the eighth. Judge didn’t play baseball on Tuesday. He didn’t play baseball on Thursday. The team has a day off today, and yet, he didn’t play baseball on Sunday until he was used as a pinch hitter. I understand the need to give guys rest, but Boone is taking it to another level. Maybe get a comfortable lead in the division before you start giving guys regular rest.

Even with the loss on Sunday, the Yankees won the series and took the first half of the Subway Series, and because of it, once again, I want to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankees fan.