Mets Waste Severino’s Masterful Start, Fall to Cubs 3-1

The Mets (14-14) opened their series with the Cubs (18-11) at Citi Field on Monday evening. A game that carried so much excitement and anticipation wound up crashing down on the Mets, who surrendered two runs in the ninth inning of a tie game to fall to the Cubs 3-1.

Luis Severino (2-2, 2.31 ERA) took the mound for the Mets, and for the second straight outing, he remained perfect his first time through the opposing team’s order. While he couldn’t match his 12-up, 12-down performance at the beginning of his last start against the Giants, Severino still managed to sit down 11 straight batters before allowing a two-out walk to Ian Happ in the fourth inning.

Unlike his last start, where things went south right after he allowed his first baserunner, Severino made just one pitch out of the stretch before recording the out and escaping the fourth. From there, he kept rolling, and it wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Cubs got their second man on base with Mike Tauchman getting hit by a pitch.

Tauchman advanced to second base on a fielder’s choice, but he curiously took off for third on a batted ball he must’ve thought would find the outfield grass. Jeff McNeil instead made the catch and doubled off Tauchman at second to get through the seventh inning.

Severino finally allowed his first hit of the game with no outs in the eighth inning, officially ending his lengthy no-hit bid. It came on a broken-bat blooper from Dansby Swanson, which followed a leadoff walk, putting two runners on with nobody out.

Up to this point, the Mets had only scored one run, which came on a home run from Brandon Nimmo off Jameson Taillon (2-0, 1.50 ERA) in the first inning. As great as Severino had been throughout this game, Taillon kept right with him and never let the Mets’ lead exceed one.

Now, with two on and nobody out, that meant trouble. The thrill of the no-hit bid was officially over, and the Cubs had a chance to tie or take the lead. Severino managed to get a ground ball fielder’s choice, which put runners on the corners with one out, but a curious decision on the next play by Joey Wendle surrendered the lead. Instead of throwing home for a sure out on a slow ground ball, he tried to turn two, but it wound up being too slow. Just like that, the Mets and Cubs tied at one.

The two teams entered the ninth inning still knotted, and Carlos Mendoza opted to go with Edwin Díaz in a tie game for the second straight game. This time, it didn’t go as well as it did yesterday. Díaz allowed an opposite-field double to Mike Tauchman between a pair of outs before Christopher Morel dropped the hammer with a moonshot of a home run to left field. All of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, the Mets trailed 3-1.

Héctor Neris took the mound in the bottom of the inning to try to close the Mets out. He allowed a leadoff walk to Pete Alonso before recording an out and then walking Jeff McNeil to bring the winning run to the plate. Neris fell behind a pinch-hitting DJ Stewart 2-0 but recovered to strike him out. Brett Baty was summoned to pinch hit for Wendle, but a swinging strikeout ended things for the Mets.

New York fought in the ninth but ultimately fell 3-1 in their most disappointing loss of the young season. What could’ve been a special outing from Luis Severino turned into a loss, with a major lack of offense playing a huge part yet again. The Mets are now 14-14 and have lost six of their last eight.

Statistic of the Game: Longest No-Hit Bid in Eight Years

Luis Severino’s seven-inning no-hit bid was the longest by a single Mets pitcher since Steven Matz went 7 1/3 innings without allowing a hit in August of 2016. This followed a game in which Severino started with four perfect innings. While neither outing ended the way he wanted, it’s clear that Severino is a new pitcher this year. When he’s on the mound, you can feel confident he’ll give you a stellar performance.

Player of the Game

This needs no explanation. For all the reasons listed already, Luis Severino is the player of the game, especially in a game where offense was mostly non-existent. Through six starts, Severino has a 2.31 ERA and continues to look like a steal of a free-agent signing for the Mets.

On Deck

The Mets and Cubs continue their series at Citi Field on Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. ET. Sean Manaea (1-1, 3.33) will face Javier Assad (2-0, 2.00 ERA), who is off to a strong start. Manaea has a career 4.67 ERA against the Cubs in four appearances, while Assad has a 1.42 ERA against the Mets in two career appearances.

The game will air on SNY and MLB Network.