Sevy silences concerns with improved velo against Rox

DENVER -- If any doubt lingered into the third inning of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Rockies about Luis Severino’s ability to be Luis Severino, the big right-hander silenced it in the span of three pitches. Facing some resistance at Coors Field, Severino found himself in a two-on, two-out jam with Colorado’s cleanup hitter, Ryan McMahon, at the plate.

Severino started McMahon off with a changeup. Then he came back with three consecutive fastballs at 99, 99 and 98 mph: foul ball, foul ball, strikeout.

“I got my seven and a half hours of sleep,” Severino said of his improved velocity.

Before the game, manager Carlos Mendoza acknowledged that team officials would be paying active attention to Severino’s radar readings, considering his fastball velocity had dipped as low as 93 mph in his previous outing -- Severino’s worst of the season. At the time, Mendoza chalked it up to a blip, an aberration, “just one of those days where he didn’t have it.” But it felt reasonable to question Severino considering his lengthy injury history and elevated innings total. Maybe that blip was the start of a trend?

The only way Severino was going to silence such whispers was with gas. And so gas he delivered, averaging 97.1 mph with his four-seamer -- a good 2.4 ticks faster than in his last start, and his highest mark in any outing all season. The five runs he allowed over five innings weren’t ideal, but Severino could chalk those up more to quirkiness than anything.

The first run on Severino’s line was unearned, the product of a Mark Vientos error on a ball that squirted through his glove and -- bizarrely -- over the lower rail guarding the visiting dugout. The second came home after Tyrone Taylor dropped a ball in right field while attempting to start a relay. The third and fourth occurred on a classic Coors Field homer -- a Jake Cave fly ball with a 41-degree launch angle and a hit probability of nine percent. The fifth scored on a ground-ball double that skipped off Vientos’ glove (shortly after a nine-minute rain delay in which the tarp never moved from its resting spot down the left-field line).

If ever there was a time that process mattered more than results, this was it. The game was a perfect example of Mendoza’s pregame impartation that “crazy things happen in this ballpark.”

“It was just a weird, weird game,” said Severino, who was making his first career start at Coors Field. “Other days, that’s definitely five, six innings with two or one run [allowed]. I just need to keep competing, keep getting better, and stick to my routine to be healthy all year.”

Unlike Severino’s last loss, this was not “just one of those days where he didn’t have it.” On this night, Severino mostly had it. And that portends well for the Mets regardless of the night’s result.

Any thought of the Mets continuing to challenge for a National League Wild Card spot will hinge heavily upon Severino’s ability to stay healthy and productive down the stretch. He’s pitched 128 2/3 innings this year after throwing 209 1/3 over the previous five years combined. Mets officials have monitored his vitals closely, which is why his velocity dip in his last outing raised so many flags. Other than his full night of sleep, Severino said he didn’t do anything different this time around.

If he can maintain that type of upper-90s zip into September and beyond, the Mets know, Severino isn’t likely to suffer many repeat performances of Tuesday’s defeat.

“We saw it from the first pitch of the game, he came out of the gate 98, 97, and that was a good sign,” Mendoza said. “And the velo held the whole outing. Obviously, he gave up five, but … I thought he was good, to be honest with you. It was good to see him strong again today.”