By Joiner Martinez
Aug 17, 2024, 10:20 PM EDT
Dominican pitcher Luis Severino threw four-hit ball for his second career shutout, and the New York Mets got home runs from Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in a 4-0 victory over the Miami Marlins on Saturday.
This Saturday, Severino pitched like he never had in his last few outings, reminiscent of the pitcher who shone almost a decade ago on the other side of town and who even became part of the conversation for the Cy Young Award, finishing third in the AL voting for the award in 2017.
He pitched his second complete game and first since 2018, which coincidentally was also a shutout against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
This time, he allowed only four hits, gave up one walk and struck out eight opponents to reach 117 in the season and 905 in his career, and the Mets defeated the Marlins 4-0 at Citi Field, with the native of Sabana de La Mar adding his eighth victory of the year (8-6).
“It was amazing,” Severino said. “It was so much fun to go out and compete for this fan base.”
He reduced his ERA to 3.91 in 142.2 innings of work – and 24 starts -, his WHIP is 1.22 and opponents are hitting .238 against him, after hitting .301 against him last season. There is no doubt that this 2024 Luis Severino has eclipsed the 2023 one, and that is very positive.
“It was a special feeling,” Mendoza said. “The crowd supported him. It was a special day.”
Mendoza spent five seasons with Severino as Yankees manager and has known the right-hander since he was a teenager.
“I’m proud of him because it hasn’t been easy,” Mendoza said. “I knew he was looking at me and I know once he looks at me like that, he wants one more. It was an easy decision for me.”
Severino, who is on a one-year contract, hasn’t pitched more than 90 innings in a season since he threw 191 1/3 innings in 2018. If the Mets stick with a strict five-man rotation, Severino will have about six or seven starts remaining. That’s a decent amount of time remaining in the regular season.
So on one hand, Severino’s dominance over the Marlins’ young, aggressive, underachieving players answered some concerns about his workload and his workload. He’s definitely in a good place. But on the other hand, it also continued to raise some concerns about his work capacity.
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