MILWAUKEE — In many ways, Luis Severino on Tuesday night was the Mets season to date.
It went horribly at the outset, but there was a relentlessness not to surrender. No, wait. There was more than that. There was a will and skill to do more than survive.
Thus on Tuesday, Severino began awful and ended great — kind of like a team we all know. It is a Met-aphor for these times.
Because the Mets had a bucketful of excuses at the ready to roll over in this opener: from a hellacious travel schedule to the exhaustion of nine of the most thrilling, sapping innings in their history Monday … followed by another nine innings … followed by a cigar and champagne celebration … followed by yet another plane flight that continued their 10-day ping-pong between Atlanta and Milwaukee.But rather than a concession speech, the Mets furthered their mission statement — that you can wobble them, but not knock them out — and beware their counterpunch.
“We didn’t see Monday as the end all, be all,” Brandon Nimmo said of getting into the playoffs. “And even after this, it wasn’t like we had an over-the-top celebration.”
The “this” was falling behind the Brewers 2-0 in the first and then pulling ahead 3-2 in the second. Then falling behind 4-3 in the fourth and zooming ahead 8-4 in the fifth — a score that would be the final. Like in Game 1 in Atlanta on Monday, the offensive surge was done via a hail of timely, ferocious at-bats up and down the lineup.
And it was accomplished this time because Severino teetered and teetered through four innings, but simply outlasted his Milwaukee counterpart, Freddy Peralta — and then gave two more innings that even he did not expect.
“He understood the mission,” Francisco Lindor said.
That was to get outs, as many as possible, to protect an overtaxed bullpen and rest it for what is ahead. Severino thought he was done after four innings, four runs and 79 pitches. But Mendoza recognized the value of every out in the short and long-term and told Severino to keep going.
Severino responded with six up, six down in 26 more pitches to begin a procession of perfection followed by Jose Butto for two innings and Ryne Stanek for one.
“We easily could have used five or more pitchers for this and, instead, we used three,” Lindor said. “[Severino] knew that every out he gave us was going to be big.”
Not just Tuesday. Yep, the team that was 0-5 to start the schedule and disturbingly bad in May and still trying to dispel talk of being sellers in June began October by taking a lead in a playoff series for the first time since the 2015 NLCS. And Severino’s efforts helped get a bullpen back in order to try to win once more to complete an upset in this best-of-three and advance to the Phillies in the Division Series.
As they did Monday by finally exorcising demons in Atlanta, the Mets won in Milwaukee and against the Brewers. They had lost 15 of 18 at American Family Field dating to 2018 and were 1-5 against the Brewers this season.
And through four innings, Milwaukee had a 4-3 lead and Severino had a 5.48 ERA in 10-plus playoff starts. But Brewers manager Pat Murphy did pull his starter after four, though Peralta had retired nine straight after a two-run Jesse Winkler triple in the second. Of course, the Brewers had the NL’s best bullpen ERA, buoyed by a 1.59 mark in 28 regular-season innings versus the Mets.
And then dynamic rookie left fielder Jackson Chourio robbed Starling Marte of a homer to open the fifth. The 40,022 in attendance were waving yellow towels and with the roof closed smothering the Mets in decibels. Yet, by the time the inning was over, cornerstones of these Brewers — pen and defense — both had crumbled and these nice Midwestern folks were booing Aaron Ashby off the mound after he faced five batters and retired none.
With now a four-run lead, Severino returned. To that point, he had faced a staggering 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position. But he would not allow another baserunner. He went from what he called “a grind” to cruising through six additional invaluable outs. The guy who couldn’t stay healthy in the end with the Yankees was finding gas in his tank after finishing sixth in the NL in innings.
Again a Met-aphor for a team finding more. Severino and this team on Monday could have taken another off-ramp. Instead, they wobble and keep going. They keep standing. And as early as Wednesday night, we might be adding that, because of that, they keep advancing.