Mike Francesa slams Yankees as ‘losers’ after ALCS excuse

Like most of us, Mike Francesa saves his spiciest takes for Twitter.

The broadcasting legend slammed the Yankees after their 3-2 ALCS Game 2 loss to the Astros, after which starting pitcher Luis Severino said Houston “got lucky.”

“Yanks sound like losers after the game. Shut up about exit velo. Try hitting the ball,” Francesa tweeted on Thursday night.

Francesa was referring to Severino citing the exit velocity of Alex Bregman’s home run and Aaron Judge’s long fly ball that was snagged at the right-field fence by Kyle Tucker.

“[Bregman] hit it 91 mph,’’ Severino told reporters of Bregman’s three-run, third-inning blast into the Crawford Boxes in left field. “That’s the only thing I’m gonna say. And Judge hit it 106 [mph] and it didn’t go out. They got lucky.”

Francesa did not appreciate Severino’s dismissive tone as the Yankees are now in a 2-0 hole against their hated rivals.

Judge’s eighth-inning shot to right, nearly a game-flipping, two-run homer, fell just short of the fence and into the glove of Kyle Tucker.

On his BetRivers podcast that the longtime WFAN staple recorded after the show, he took a more measured tone. Francesa still lamented the Yankees’ lack of hitting and correctly noted that the Yankees would have gotten shut out if not for starting pitcher Framber Valdez’s two-base error in the fourth inning. Still, Francesa liked the Yankees’ chances in Game 3 on Saturday in The Bronx with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound.

“The Yankees didn’t put two guys on base in any inning,” Francesa said. “Very hard to win hat way unless you’re going to hit a bunch of solo home runs. They did not and they struck out 13 times. That’s 30 times in two games. You have to put the ball in play, get some base hits, they don’t get any hits. Maybe the home cooking will be a difference-maker.”

Francesa did have two positive takeaways; the decision to move Harrison Bader to leadoff and the defensive wizardry of shortstop Oswald Peraza after the touted prospect made his first start of the postseason there on Thursday night.