BOSTON _ Luis Severino appears to be Bronx-bound sooner rather than later.
Much sooner.
The right-hander, on the injured list since the start of the season, made his second rehab start Friday night with Double-A Trenton in its playoff game against Reading.
Aaron Boone said before Friday night's game at Fenway Park that if everything went well with Severino's outing, he likely would continue his rehab in the majors with the Yankees.
All indications are the outing went better than well. Severino, who threw 50 pitches (his pitch count was 45 to 50), allowed one run (on a second-inning homer) and five hits in three innings-plus. With a fastball that scouts said was consistently at 94 to 97 mph, he struck out five and did not walk a batter.
"Stuff was major league (caliber)," said one opposing team scout. "Seemed to tire a little at the end, but he had good life on the fastball and the slider was sharp."
Boone said he believes there are enough starts left in the regular season to build Severino up "pretty high" in terms of pitches.
"You can obviously always throttle back, and I could see him in a variety of roles for us," Boone said. "The biggest thing is making sure he's physically sound and bouncing back because I think we all understand how valuable he can be to us moving forward, and it could be in a lot of different roles right now."
