Deeper dive into Luis Severino’s outing shows progress for Yankees righthander

ATLANTA — This was a different Luis Severino.

On the mound and, maybe as significant, off it when talking to the media.

The righthander, whose 2023 season has been nothing short of a disaster, threw four innings Tuesday night in the Yankees’ 5-0 loss to Atlanta. His pitching line, on the surface, showed no discernible progress.

But diving into Severino’s outing — one in which he allowed five runs (three earned) and five hits — there was progress. Certainly when compared to so many of the outings that preceded it.

“I think the one thing we saw with Sevy, we saw some swing- and-miss,” Aaron Boone said of his pitcher who recorded 12 swing and misses Tuesday. “And that’s something we haven’t seen lately. But he had stuff tonight. You could tell he was having his way a lot of the night, which was good to see.”

This was not, one rival AL scout said, simply happy talk on the part of the Yankees’ manager.

“A few positive signs,” the scout said. “Less getting whacked around left, right and center [the way he had been]. Just burned by two big mistakes. Showed a bit more with his fastball and cutter. Wasn’t as poor as I was expecting based on previous outings.”

The two big mistakes came on a first-pitch slider in the first inning that Marcell Ozuna blasted for a three-run homer, and on a 98-mph fastball in the fourth when Ronald Acuna Jr. hit a two-run shot with two outs that made it 5-0 (those two runs were unearned because the leadoff batter reached on an error by third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa).

Severino, who in the words of one club insider has sounded “broken” in some of his previous postgame comments — such as July 30 in Baltimore when he said “right now, I feel like the worst pitcher in the game” — sounded far more upbeat afterward.

“Really good today,” said Severino, who a handful of times hit 99 mph while striking out five. “I feel like I was in command of all my pitches. A couple mistakes . . . A lot…