Rough Third Inning Unravels Luis Severino

The New York Mets decided to bump up Luis Severino to Tuesday night’s pivotal series opener against the Atlanta Braves to give him two starts to end the season. The team needed an ace performance from him when you consider the offense struggled against Spencer Schwellenbach the first time. Unfortunately, that did not come to fruition due to a rough third inning and New York is now just a game ahead of Atlanta in the wild card race.

Severino had escaped early trouble in the first inning. However, the third inning was not so kind to him. It began when Orlando Arcia hit a swinging bunt that caused Francisco Alvarez and Severino to go for the ball, but the right-hander threw it away.

With Arcia in scoring position, Michael Harris II lined a double down the right field line to put the Braves in front. Then, Ozzie Albies singled to make it 2-0, but Starling Marte overthrew the cut-off man to allow Albies to go to second. That would be costly later in the inning when Ramon Laureano drove in the third run of the frame on a base hit.

On the night, Severino allowed two extra-base hits, and both of them came from Harris (solo home run in the fourth). That third inning prevented him from going deep into the game, as he needed 33 pitches.

In the loss, Severino went four innings, allowed four runs on seven hits, walked a batter, and struck out five on 89 pitches (61 strikes). It is the first time since August 28 that the right-hander has gone fewer than five innings in an outing (last time he allowed more than three earned runs in a game).

If you go beyond the pitch line, Severino did have as many swings and misses as Schwellenbach did (10) and he was able to get his fastball to average at 96.6 miles-per-hour (Baseball Savant). Unfortunately, the Braves got the big hits when they mattered the most. Atlanta was 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position, while the Mets were 0-for-2.

Severino also showed some good things with the sweeper. He got six whiffs on that pitch and used it to get Jorge Soler to strike out looking to end the first.

While there were some good signs from the right-hander, who tends to bring the energy to key games in late September, it just was not enough. The Mets needed a great start while the offense tried to find answers, but he just did not deliver.

Tuesday’s loss could not stop some fans from thinking back to how the series in Atlanta went towards the end of 2022. If there is one bright side, the Mets saved several of their high-leverage relievers for the next two games (weather permitting).

That said, this is the kind of game the Mets needed Severino to rise to the occasion to erase some of those 2022 demons or put them on the back burner. Yes, he ran into some bad luck at some points, but bad luck won’t be an excuse if the Mets aren’t playing baseball next week in the postseason.

The Mets still have everything in front of them, but they can’t afford to have more nights where the offense, pitching, and defense all fail to deliver. Severino wasn’t the only reason the Mets lost on Tuesday, but the Braves approach against him, particularly the hits by Harris II, led to his downfall.

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