Severino delivers after Mendoza sticks with him

MIAMI -- When Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked out to the mound with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday afternoon, it would be fair to say most people at loanDepot park thought that Mendoza was going to go to the bullpen.

But not Luis Severino. Despite runners on first and second -- and the open door to the visiting bullpen, in which José Buttó was warming up -- Severino knew that the final out of the sixth was his, and his alone, to get.

“I knew he was not going to take me out there,” Severino said after the Mets' 1-0 win over the Marlins. “It was just to have a conversation there. He asked me how I was feeling, I said 'I got this, I got this guy here.' And he told me ,'This is you, this is your game. This is your inning here.'”

That kind of knowledge comes with Severino’s depth of experience, and also his personal history working with Mendoza, who was the Yankees’ bench coach from 2018-23, five of Severino’s eight seasons (he did not pitch in 2020) with the other New York team.

After the chat with his starter -- who has been key for the Mets at eating up innings, and delivering results, as New York has been without ace Kodai Senga thus far -- Mendoza nodded and turned on his heel, making his way back to the dugout.

Mendoza’s trust in Severino was well-placed, as the right-hander got Nick Gordon to whiff on a 97.6 mph four-seam fastball to end the frame. It was Severino’s seventh and final strikeout of the evening.

“I was pretty confident that I was going to leave him out there,” Mendoza said. “But I wanted to see -- I wanted to get his take. Because I saw the velo… he was still holding up, the way he was executing pitches, and I knew he wanted it. But I wanted to make sure that that was the case, and right away when I got there, he was like, 'Give me this one.' And I was like, 'All right, you know, this is it right here. So give me everything you got, empty the tank.’ And he ended up doing it.”

As a whole, Severino’s performance in the Mets’ win was impressive. Working on a couple days’ extra rest, Severino effectively shut down Miami, delivering six scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and three walks.

“We had some counts that were kind of in our favor with runners in scoring position,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “and he punched out a lot of those guys, unfortunately, so we couldn't even put the ball in play. It was just a really good job by Severino overall.”

Originally, Saturday wasn’t supposed to be Severino’s day on the bump; he was scheduled to pitch on Sunday, but was moved up when Jose Quintana called the training staff on Friday to report a fever and symptoms of illness.

Ever the team player, Severino -- who knew he wasn’t going to get the chance to face his former team, the Yankees, in the Mets’ next road trip stop -- dominated, turning in his team-leading ninth quality start and, as Mendoza had ordered, giving it everything he had.

It helped that Severino’s stuff was all-systems-go. His four-seam fastball averaged its fastest this season (96.9 mph, up from 96 mph on the year) and four of his five pitches saw spin rate increases of between 37 and 84 revolutions per minute. Severino got the Marlins to swing and miss 12 times, his sixth game this year with at least 12 whiffs.

“I always have a little extra in the tank,” Severino said. “No, I was feeling really good. And this is actually -- the temperature here is nice. And I always have a little left in the tank when I need it.

“At the beginning of my career, I was younger, so I could throw [99] in the beginning, but now I just need to pitch more [to] location than anything else. And then when I need a good fastball, you know, just reach a little bit and try to make that pitch. But right now, everything is more and more about location than power.”

But, back to Severino’s first remark -- how did he know that Mendoza wasn’t going to pull him in favor of Buttó for the final out of the sixth inning?

“I mean, I think the history, you know, knowing him -- even the way he walks and everything -- I was like, 'No, he's not gonna take me out,'” Severino said.

The way Mendoza walks? Really?

“Yeah, if he starts walking with his left foot -- nah,” Severino joked, the media scrum erupting in laughter. “No, but I knew -- even, like, how he was walking, his face, that he was not going to take me out.

“It’s good chemistry.”