Luis Severino throws four-hit shutout in Mets' win over Marlins
New York Mets starting pitcher Luis Severino tips his cap after the top of the eighth inning against the Miami Marlins in an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The stretch run for the postseason began, unofficially, on Saturday with the Mets playing the first of their final 40 games and looking as if they might be ready to shrug off their recent malaise and return to the form that carried them into contention after an awful start.
One thing every team in the final drive toward October needs is an ace. Luis Severino may not have been that guy when the blueprint for the 2024 Mets was drawn up, but he looked the part as he mowed down the Marlins in a 4-0 victory before 34,744 at drizzly Citi Field.
Severino (8-6, 3.91 ERA) fired a four-hitter with one walk and eight strikeouts. The 113-pitch performance earned him his first shutout since he spun one for the Yankees against Houston on May 2, 2018. It was the Mets’ first complete-game shutout since Jacob deGrom blanked the Nationals on April 23, 2021.
“He was lights-out today,” Pete Alonso said. “When I looked up in the sixth and saw where his pitch count was [65 through six innings], I’m like, ‘Oh, God, he’s got a shot to do this . . . a shot to go the distance.”
Severino ultimately did, but there was more than a smidge of drama — in the dugout and on the field — before it was over.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said he could feel the eyes of his entire team on him as he checked with Severino after the eighth. And when the righty descended into the tunnel out of their sight, Mendoza followed him.
“I said, ‘Look me in the eyes . . . I don’t want you to be a hero here. I know that you’re throwing a pretty good game, but let’s be honest,’ ” said Mendoza, who coached in the Yankees’ organization during all of Severino’s years in pinstripes. “He was like ‘I’m good, I’m good’ with a straight face. I’ve known this kid since he was 15 or 16 years old, and that pretty much sealed it right there.”
“When he gave me the opportunity to go nine, I emptied the tank,” Severino said.
He received a standing ovation when he returned to the mound for the ninth and promptly hit leadoff hitter Jake Burger with a pitch. When Mendoza came out of the dugout, Severino thought he was done.
“When he was coming out, [Francisco] Lindor told me, ‘We’re not out yet — convince him you feel ready and you feel good,’ ” Severino said.
“I said, ‘OK, I’ll give you one more. Give me everything you’ve got again. I want you [throwing] with conviction here,’ ’’ Mendoza said. “And he was pretty sure.”
The throng cheered when Mendoza left Severino in. He retired the next three Marlins in order, hitting 99 mph on one pitch.
Severino went 19-8 and threw 191 2⁄3 innings for the Yankees in 2018. Injuries shortened or eliminated every season after that and the Yankees did not re-sign him, leaving an opportunity with the Mets. And for much of the season — with expected ace Kodai Senga out for all but one game — he has performed admirably.
Severino’s previous three games — in which he was 0-3 with a 9.69 ERA — suggested his best days this season might be over. There were concerns about a pitcher who had thrown a total of 209 2⁄3 innings between 2018 and this season and came into Saturday at 133 2⁄3 innings.
That didn’t seem to be a problem against the Marlins, whose aggressiveness at the plate resulted in Severino retiring them in four different innings on three, four, nine and 10 pitches.
The Mets scored a run in each of the first four innings and had one incredible double play to keep the wind in his sails.
Lindor led off the first with his 24th home run and Alonso led off the second with his 27th (and 100th at Citi Field). Brandon Nimmo tripled in the third and scored on Jesse Winker’s two-out single to right-center. Lindor drew a six-pitch walk with two outs in the fourth and Mark Vientos roped a run-scoring double down the leftfield line.
The double play came in the third, when Severino needed only three pitches. Vidal Brujan singled on the first pitch and Nick Fortes flied out on the second. Brujan moved to second on an errant pickoff throw by Severino and Xavier Edwards hit his third pitch hard up the middle.
Lindor snared it over the bag and threw to third baseman Vientos to get Brujan in a rundown. Vientos ran him back to second and threw to second baseman Jeff McNeil, who applied the tag. McNeil whirled to find Edwards trying for second and Vientos was there for the tag to end the 6-5-4-5 double play.
The Mets won for the third time in four games and remained one game behind Atlanta for the final NL wild-card spot.
When asked after the game if he can be the ace this team needs for the final stretch, Severino replied, “Every time they ask me that question, I’m like, ‘Everybody here deserves to be an ace [and] you can’t go through a full season with only one pitcher.’ I feel like every time they give you the ball on that day, you should be the ace. It’s a title that the front office or the team gives to me. I am not going to give it to myself.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
