Bird bashes two homers for RailRiders

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre couldn't help but keep a collective eye on Luis Severino's big league debut on Wednesday night. Columbus wouldn't have minded if first baseman Greg Bird had been a little more distracted.

The Yankees' No. 4 prospect turned in his third career multi-homer game and added his first triple of the season as the RailRiders disposed of the Clippers, 7-2, at Huntington Park.

Bird finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored. He slugged his homers in the first and fifth innings, both off Columbus right-hander Josh Tomlin. The left-handed-hitting slugger fell behind, 0-2, but caught a hanging curveball for the first, then punished a 1-1 pitch over the plate for the second. He has 12 home runs on the season, including six in 27 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

In his final at-bat, Bird drove a fly ball to the warning track in left-center, where center fielder James Ramsey pulled it in by the 405-foot sign.

Bird added a one-out triple in the third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Yankees' No. 7 prospect Gary Sanchez. The triple was the sixth of his career and first since July 30, 2014 for Class A Advanced Tampa.

"That was a good feeling," he said. "I've been wanting to knock that out for a while. Have to get one a year, right?"

Over his past six games, Bird is 11-for-25 with three homers, marking a fast turnaround following a 1-for-19 slump.

"I went through a rough patch last week, but this week I'm feeling better," he said. "I'm just seeing the ball better, my timing is better, nothing huge. Getting through those bumps and sticking to your game plan is most important. Get back to doing what you do. You just learn to deal with them."

The 22-year-old shined at Triple-A on the same night that Severino made history, becoming the first Yankee to strike out seven, walk none and allow two or fewer hits in his first big league start. Bird and Severino were teammates in 2013 with Class A Charleston and also were together for much of 2014-15.

"Seeing him up there tonight was awesome," Bird said. "He's a great guy and he deserves it. He's a gamer. He's ready to be there and ready to win games for them there. It was exciting and fun to watch. We were keeping a close eye on him."

Bird is making a strong argument for a big league callup of his own, hitting .296 with an .893 OPS in a month of Triple-A action.

"Obviously, that's where I want to be, you can't deny that," he said. "I'm just trying to go out every day and work hard and let everything else take care of itself. That's all of our goals, and that's all we can do."

Yankees No. 6 prospect Rob Refsnyder was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored, raising his average to .286. He's batting .318 since the beginning of July.

Kyle Davies (8-6) was the beneficiary of the RailRiders' 14-hit attack, yielding two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three over five innings.