A’s pitcher Luis Severino prepares for his first matchup against his former teammate Aaron Judge

WEST SACRAMENTO Calif AP Luis Severino spent years as Aaron Judge s teammate on the New York Yankees marveling at his prodigious power and skill as a hitter Now Severino gets to face Judge for the first time this weekend when he is slated to start for the Athletics on Sunday in the series finale against the Yankees I m excited he noted Friday before the series opener I m just trying to figure out what to throw to Judge No pitcher has been able to figure that out this season as Judge is off to a sizzling start after getting off to slow starts to the season in latest years Judge enters the weekend leading the majors in almost every major offensive categories He is batting with homers RBIs runs scored a on-base percentage and a slugging percentage Usually this is the bad part of the season the first month Severino mentioned It s unbelievable what he can do He s such a good athlete Even when he s not doing good he s inevitably the same person That s why he s one of my favorite teammates I feel like every year he just gets better I don t know how Severino was with the Yankees from - going - with a ERA He is slated to face the Yankees for the first time in his career after missing them last year when he was on the New York Mets Severino made headlines last year when he commented the Yankees only have two good hitters referring to Judge and former Yankees outfielder Juan Soto Severino wouldn t say how a large number of good hitters the Yankees have this year outside of Judge saying he hasn t watched much because of the three-hour time difference Yankees manager Aaron Boone explained there s no ill will and that s just Sevy Boone announced he has only good memories of his time with Severino and is happy that his former athlete has been healthy since leaving the Yankees after making only starts in his last five years with the association because of a series of injuries I love the person I love the competitor Boone revealed A lot of greatness with us but obviously a lot of injuries that he had to work his way through But what I m happy for him and proud of him for is his continued dedication It s not easy when you have a series of particular considerable injuries too that really cost him a lot of time and in the prime of his career I feel like he s come out of that and done a great job of just learning how to deal with that learning how to work through that AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb Source