Mets pitcher Luis Severino needs to prove himself against the Padres, other contenders

Luis Severino is coming off of an impressive complete game shutout versus the Miami Marlins. In fact, he has dominated the Marlins this season. In 4 starts he’s 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA. No other team has seen the New York Mets starter more. A few clubs have seen him twice, including the fellow NL East basement dwelling Washington Nationals. Severino is 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA against them.

Pure dominance against the two division rivals he should indeed pummel, the problem for Severino this season has been when he goes against good ball clubs. Dazzling statistics against two rivals, Sevy’s totals don’t look so hot when we remove them.

Subtract what he has done against the Marlins and Nationals, Severino is 4-6 with a 4.71 ERA. Half of his wins are removed and his ERA bumps up almost a full run higher.

Mets pitcher Luis Severino has beaten up the bad teams, gotten hit hard against the good ones

You can only perform against the teams you’re scheduled to pitch against so we can’t fault Severino entirely or dismiss what he has accomplished. Nonetheless, his wins this year haven’t been too impressive.

The other four he has include a win against the Arizona Diamondbacks in a short 5.1 inning performance where he allowed 4 earned runs, the Chicago Cubs in one of two stellar outings against them, the Kansas City Royals before we realized they truly were a good team, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mets are an even 12-12 when he does start games. The no-decisions are a mixed bag of games he should’ve won or lost. They are what they are.

The big test for Severino comes when he faces the San Diego Padres and then the Diamondbacks for the second time this season on the road trip. He didn’t see the Padres when they visited Citi Field. He’ll need to bear down a little more strongly this time against a Diamondbacks club more reinvigorated.

Severino’s 142.2 innings this season is the third-most in his career. He hasn’t gotten over 102 since the 2018 season before the injury bug began to bite him. A strong effort against the Padres is important. Coming off of a complete game shutout against the Marlins, he’ll need to prove he hasn’t run out of gas. The Mets aren’t in a position at the moment to give any of their starters a breather. Although the situation is mighty different, the haunting thought of Johan Santana in the no-hitter or Matt Harvey in the 2015 World Series has crept into my mind.

It was great to see Severino finish what he started on Saturday. But with a whole lot of tough customers on the schedule, they’re going to need him to deliver against more than the scrubs.