Mets betrayed by Luis Severino's glovework, high pitch count in NLCS Game 3 defeat at Citi Field

Shohei Ohtani dropped the curtain on the Mets in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s NLCS Game 3 with a 410-foot moonshot that nearly cleared the rightfield’s second deck. But the machinations of this 8-0 loss to the Dodgers occurred on a much smaller scale, much earlier, with the string of events that led to Luis Severino’s exit before the end of the fifth.

Severino wasn’t undone by fatigue Wednesday night, despite this being his 34th start of the season and closing fast on 200 innings. It was the Mets’ defense that betrayed Severino, and ironically he was partly to blame — the team’s only Gold Glove finalist. Two botched comebackers to Severino, along with a Francisco Alvarez throwing error, led to a pair of unearned runs in a sloppy second inning that put the Mets in a 2-0 hole they never recovered from.

Now the Mets will have to bounce back yet again, down 2-1 in this NLCS after getting shut out by the Dodgers for the second time in three games and outscored 17-0 in those two losses. Jose Quintana will start Thursday night’s Game 4 and Kodai Senga (gulp) is a strong possibility for Friday’s Game 5, which could be with the Mets facing elimination.

Afterward, Severino couldn’t believe it was his glovework that ultimately cost him on two grounders that traveled only 60 feet. With so much of his attention focused on keeping the slugging Dodgers inside the Citi Field fences, his night unraveled on balls that never left the infield.

“I was not good, you know?” Severino said, smiling at the absurdity of it. “I should have caught those. I mean, one should have been an easy double play. The other one I should have stopped the guy from going to the plate. But I made a couple mistakes there. Everything else was really good.”

From his standpoint, sure. Severino held the Dodgers at 2-0 and almost made it out of the fifth inning before a two-out single to Freddie Freeman and a walk to Max Muncy ended his night at 95 pitches. That’s when manager Carlos Mendoza went to his high-leverage option in Reed Garrett, who whiffed Teoscar Hernadez to kill the threat.

The tipping point of the night, however, came an inning later, when Garrett gave up a two-out single to Tommy Edman and the subsequent two-run homer to the No. 9 hitter, Enrique Hernandez. Garrett left a two-strike splitter up in the zone, and Hernandez’s homer was the first one he surrendered on that pitch this entire season.

“I wasn’t trying to throw it there,” Garrett said. “I just didn’t execute. He put a good swing on a bad pitch and made me pay for it.”

Ohtani and Muncy later went deep off Tylor Megill, who was essentially used as a white flag to preserve the rest of the bullpen. The lingering frustration from Wednesday night, however, all stemmed from that head-scratcher of a second inning. A leadoff walk to Muncy was followed by Teoscar Hernandez’s soft nubber in front of the plate. Alvarez — whose October is nose-diving by the day — popped up and aggressively fired down to second, but the poor throw kicked off Jose Iglesias for an error on the catcher.

Then came Severino’s own costly string of shoddy defense. He got Gavin Lux on a bouncer back to the mound, but couldn’t get a grip in time to start a double play, instead opting for the sure out at first base. And with both Dodgers moved into scoring position, Will Smith hit a sharp comebacker that Severino couldn’t corral as he sprung off the right side of the mound. The ball caromed off his glove, giving Muncy time to sprint home. Tommy Edman followed with a sacrifice fly to put L.A. up, 2-0.

“We didn’t make a couple of plays, obviously,” Mendoza said. “So when you’re giving a team like this extra outs, extra bases, they’re going to make you pay.”

One of the Mets’ biggest strengths, a major reason why they stood three wins from the World Series before Game 3 of the NLCS, was also a reason for concern as Severino took the mound Wednesday night.

Because as sturdy as the Mets’ rotation has been, pretty much from Opening Day, there can be a toll to pay the deeper they pitch into October — especially for this group, which didn’t take a break during the regular season and has plowed right through the playoffs, too.

The Mets had a clear advantage over the NL West champs in that department, from a reliability and length factor. And despite that regular-season workload — made heavier by a history of medical issues — they’ve also stayed strong through October. As the only wild-card team remaining, the Mets had played nine postseason games before Wednesday night — two more than L.A. — with their rotation responsible for 43 1⁄3 innings (second-place was the eliminated Padres, at 34 1⁄3 ).

For the Mets, however, it can be a fragile success. After eight months (including spring training) brilliance can fade in a hurry once the adrenaline wears off. Severino only made it so far Wednesday night, and bedlam ensued. Now it’s Quintana’s turn, and they’ll need the rotation back on track to survive from here on out.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.