After one of his best starts of the season, Luis Severino revealed the plan that he hatched on the team bus with his old ping pong rival.
“Just attack the zone, focus on not walking anybody,” Severino told SNY Wednesday after tossing eight innings of one-run ball in a 9-1 win over the Washington Nationals. “Torrens called a lot of good pitches out there. And a lot of good pitches to get ground balls, double plays. So we were really good out there.”
Severino, 30, and catcher Luis Torrens, 28, go way back. The New York Yankees signed both as amateur free agents: Severino out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 and Torrens from Venezuela in 2012 when he was 16. They played together in the minor leagues.
“I met Torrens a long time ago,” Severino told reporters. “I used to beat him playing ping pong when he was younger. We have known each other for a little bit, so we talked yesterday on the bus about the game and me, and then we talked again today. We followed the plan, and we executed it.”
Severino surrendered seven hits, struck out four and walked none to earn his fourth win of the season. The Mets broke the game open with six runs in the sixth inning to take an 8-0 lead. Down eight, Severino expected the typically aggressive Nationals hitters to be patient at the plate. They were not.
Photo by: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
“It got me by surprise in the sixth,” he said. “It was a long (top of the sixth) inning and then they were hacking first pitch. I was like, ‘OK, you know,’ and after that I was thinking OK I have to make from the beginning good pitches.”
The defense helped Severino all day, recording three double plays and a caught stealing.
“Pete Alonso was unbelievable today,” he said. “I mean, he made unbelievable plays out there, and I think everybody was just focused on doing their jobs, so I’m glad that I had those guys behind me.”
Alonso turned two potential hits into outs, making a nice backhanded stop on a sharp grounder to his right and a diving stop on a hot shot to his left . He also caught a line drive near the bag with a runner on first and stepped on the base for an unassisted double play to end the fourth inning.
The Mets have won five of seven since Jorge López tossed his glove into the crowd after getting ejected and the team held a meeting.
“We came together after that meeting we have in New York, everybody just trying to focus and getting better,” Severino said. “And that happened when you have leaders out there like Nimmo, like Lindor, and like Pete to come together and talk, and this team has our back for a long time. So when we combine good pitching and those base hits it’s gonna be good for us.”
