The New York Mets were set to enter the 2024 campaign with Kodai Senga, who suffered as the ace of the staff, but when the 2023 all-star went down with a moderate capsule strain in his right shoulder in February, the blue and orange looked like they would be ace-less. Then Luis Severino stepped up.
Severino switched Burroughs this offseason, coming to Flushing on a one-year $13 million deal, and has been worth every penny. The 30-year-old had another stellar outing on Saturday against the Miami Marlins and accomplished a feat that hasn’t been done in a Mets uniform since Jacob deGrom.
Mets’ Luis Severino throws a complete game shutout
Severino tossed a 114-pitch complete-game shutout as the Mets defeated the Marlins 4-0, striking out eight hitters and allowing just four hits and a walk.
The Dominican Republic native became the first Met since DeGrom to throw a complete game shutout when the two-time NL Cy-Young winner did it in April of 2021. For Severino, it is his second career complete game shutout, with the previous one occurring with the New York Yankees in 2018. Despite dominating the Marlins, Severino’s impressive feat almost didn’t happen.
Severino overcomes the rain
In the third inning, Citi Field’s cloudy sky turned rainy. The weather got so bad that many fans vacated the seating bowl and headed for cover. It appeared the game would be destined for a rain delay at some point, but the game kept marching on.
A delay nearly happened at the top of the sixth, with the grounds crew spending extensive time working on the infield dirt to the point that Severino returned to sit in the dugout, but things dried up enough to keep the game going. If the game were to have gone into a rain delay, Severino likely would have been done for the day, and the complete game shutout would have never happened.
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Carlos Mendoza put his trust in Severino
After working around the weather, the Dominican Republic native made it to the ninth, but it appeared his day would end after he hit Jake Burger with his first pitch and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza made a beeline for the mound to pull him. However, Severino talked him out of it.
“He told me, ‘Do you feel good? Don’t be a hero here, we need you,’” Severino said about his conversation with Mendoza on the mound.“[I told him], ‘I feel good.’ There were a lot of innings that I threw six pitches, so I wasn’t tired. And when he gave me the opportunity in the ninth, I emptied the tank, and that’s what I did.”
Severino will look to build off his stellar performance during his next start, which is scheduled for Thursday in San Diego against the Padres.
