Luis Severino single-handedly tried to prove that Spring Training stats don’t matter, as he allowed 6 ER in 5 IP, putting the Mets in a big hole early. The Mets rallied late with the home run ball but came out on the short side of a 7-6 score Saturday afternoon against the Brewers at Citi Field.
Severino, who had a 1.29 ERA in Florida, gave up three runs in the first inning. His velocity was strong but his pitches lacked both command and crispness. The final stat line showed zero walks but his pitches tended to be either outside of the zone or middle-middle. And when they were the latter, the Brewers didn’t miss. Severino gave up a career-high 12 hits.
Meanwhile, the Mets offense, which looked so inept on Opening Day, came to life. The club banged out 12 hits, including three homers. Francisco Alvarez started the HR parade when he cracked a 400-foot home run to left field in the third inning, which cut the deficit to 5-2.
But the Brewers added a run in the fifth inning on a balk by Severino, and another run in the eighth, when they notched three hits off Adam Ottavino.
Brett Baty came off the bench to deliver a 3-run homer off a lefty to make it 7-5. And Pete Alonso turned a fastball clocked at 99.9 mph into a HR with an exit velocity of 113.8 mph to make it a one-run game in the ninth.
But DJ Stewart and Starling Marte each struck out to end the game.
Coming into today Baty had only 1 HR vs LHP in his career (106 PA), so that was very nice to see.
Despite the close score, it never felt the Mets were really in it with Severino putting them in an early hole, and that hole just got deeper and deeper.
Gut Reaction: the offense showed up, too bad Severino didn’t.
Alvarez have a nice day along with Alsono. Great clutch pinch hit home run by Baty and against a Lefty too!
Was starting to think ninth inning comeback when Alonso hit his first of the year. Then I remembered it was 2024 and not 2022. Guess maybe we should have signed Hoskins instead of letting him kick our ass. Got to appreciate Darling’s commentary of when they should have retaliated for game 1 and that wasn’t the right time. Does Megill continue his ST dominance or turn back into Quintana and Severino. This might be a long season.
Um, so maybe Seve may not be in the Cy Young conversation. But he had a hell of a Grapefruit League performance.
Yup, a frustrating game, with Severino’s slider sucking and putting the Mets in an early giant hole, along with mistakes by Short and Nimmo making things worse.
I am more hopeful about Baty now, but it was one big hit in one game. If Marte continues to swing pretty well, along with Alvarez and Alonso looking good, and with Martinez coming soon, we might put up some runs.
Senga will be back in May, hopefully, but if Severino doesn’t perform well, we might think about Syracuse starters sooner rather than later. How many starts does he get before he gets demoted?