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 unearned runs shouldn’t have been fatal, but a rapidly escalating pitch count put the Mets’ bullpen in motion by the fifth inning, and manager Carlos Mendoza’s high-leverage option couldn’t hold the line.

That option was Reed Garrett, who bailed out Severino in the fifth inning when his strikeout of Teoscar Hernadez stranded two Dodgers to keep the deficit at 2-0. 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.

That was essentially the game, and now the Mets trail, 2-1, in the NLCS with the next two at Citi Field. Jose Quintana goes Thursday night, with Kodai Senga (gulp) a possibility for Friday.

As for Wednesday, the trouble started in the second inning, when Severino’s leadoff walk to Max Muncy was followed by Teoscar Hernandez’s nubber in front of the plate. Francisco Alvarez 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 glovework. 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. Edman followed with a sacrifice fly to put L.A. up, 2-0.

From there, Severino tried to push through, just as he did fighting to give the Mets six innings for their Game 1 victory over the Brewers in the Wild Card Series. Severino’s pitch count was at 41 through the first two innings, and he began the third with a pair of walks as his leash grew shorter. But the Mets caught a break when Ohtani got a terrible read on Muncy’s single to rightfield and held up at third, allowing Severino to escape, with the final out coming on another Lux grounder back to him.

A 13-pitch fourth inning gave the Mets hope Severino could hang for a while longer. But after getting Ohtani on a flyout to open the fifth, followed by Francisco Lindor’s brilliant backhand short-hop grab to rob Mookie Betts (he’s not a GG finalist, by the way), Severino gave up a single to Freddie Freeman and was pulled after a walk to Muncy.

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.

Severino, Quintana and Sean Manaea each made 30-plus starts, with the first two totaling over 181 innings. As a rotation, the Mets ranked fifth in the majors in innings pitched — the next closest playoff team still left was the Yankees, at ninth. The Dodgers, whose starting staff was decimated by injuries, ranked 25th.

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.

“We also have to understand where we're at in the season and where they're at physically,” Mendoza said before Game 3. “They're in territory now where nobody expected it. They took the baseball the whole year — Sean, Sevy, Q — and those are some of the things that we will consider when we're watching them.”

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.