Luis Severino’s Mets debut on Saturday went about as smoothly as his final season with the Yankees.
Which is to say there was much room for improvement.
The defense behind Severino didn’t help, but the right-hander also had no answers for Mets tormenter Rhys Hoskins in the team’s 7-6 loss to the Brewers at Citi Field.
A day after Hoskins’ late slide into second base irked Jeff McNeil and prompted the benches to empty, Hoskins delivered three hits, including a homer, and four RBIs — all of which occurred before reliever Yohan Ramirez threw behind him in the seventh inning and was ejected.
Severino, who arrived on a one-year contract worth $13 million after pitching to a 6.65 ERA in 19 appearances with the Yankees last season, was among the Mets’ bright spots in spring training, but that didn’t carry over into his first start.
Overall, he allowed six earned runs on a career-high 12 hits over five innings with six strikeouts.
The Brewers weren’t fooled by his pitches. Severino averaged 95.5 mph with four-seam fastball — he topped out at 98.1 mph — but produced only six swings and misses in total.
“My breaking ball was not there today,” Severino said. “I need to keep working on that.”
Severino cited the chilly weather as a reason his breaking ball perhaps failed him, but said it wasn’t an excuse.
“My job is to go out there and get people out,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I need to fix it and fix it quick.”
After Hoskins had already inflicted his damage, a message may have been sent in his direction by Ramirez with a pitch that sailed behind him in the seventh.
The teams remained in their respective dugouts, and after umpires convened Ramirez was ejected.
Ramirez, who received an ovation from the fans as he departed, said the pitch was unintentional.
“I was trying to throw my sinker inside and sometimes when I try to get it too in the ball just runs,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “And with this type of weather I don’t have the grip that I am accustomed to having and at this point the ball just ran.”
There is a good chance MLB will view the situation differently, and Ramirez could be facing a suspension.
“When one of your pitchers gets thrown out of the game, there is always that possibility,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Hopefully that’s the case here, because he is not trying to hit anybody.”
Brett Baty gave the Mets a pulse in the eighth inning with a pinch-hit, three-run homer against lefty Hoby Milner.
But after Edwin Diaz (in his first appearance 2022) pitched a scoreless ninth, the Mets could muster only one additional run, on Pete Alonso’s homer against Abner Uribe.
Willy Adames’ RBI single in the first brought in the game’s first run. Severino followed with a strikeout of Jake Bauers for the second out before Hoskins stroked a two-run single that sunk the Mets in a 3-0 hole.
The rally started with Zack Short mishandling William Contreras’ grounder to third base — ruled a hit — and Christian Yelich’s bloop single.
“I thought [Severino] missed a lot over the plate,” Mendoza said. “That pitch to Hoskins in the first inning I think he was trying to go inside with a two-seamer and too much over the plate and I didn’t think the slider had too much of a bite. The fastball, even though it was 97-98, I didn’t think it had the hop on it. I think it came down to location and they put a lot of good swings on it.”
Francisco Alvarez jumped on DL Hall’s first pitch of the second inning, a hanging curve, and launched it into the left-field seats for the Mets’ second homer of the season.
Hoskins returned to torment the Mets in the third, blasting a slider into the left-field seats for a two-run homer that extended the Brewers’ lead to 5-1. Adames singled leading off the inning before Hoskins delivered.
Alvarez got a run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single against Hall after the Mets rallied with two outs. Starling Marte walked and McNeil singled, setting up Alvarez.
Severino balked in a run in the fifth, putting the Mets in a 6-2 hole. Hoskins singled for his third hit of the game and Oliver Dunn’s first major league hit, a single on a grounder off Alonso’s glove put runners on the corners before the balk.
Adam Ottavino allowed three hits in the eighth inning, including an RBI single to Yelich that gave the Brewers a 7-2 lead.
Baty struck in the bottom of the inning, after Marte and Alvarez had singled. Alvarez finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Alonso’s homer in the ninth got the Mets closer.
