PITTSBURGH — Luis Severino was once of the premier aces in the game and at times, has looked a lot like one again this season with the Mets. But in the battle of rookie vs. veteran, it was the rookie who prevailed.
Severino, Jake Diekman and Ty Adcock combined to give up seven home runs, two of which were grand slams, in a 14-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night at PNC Park. Bryan Reynolds and Rowdy Tellez combined for four of those homers, with Diekman giving up a grand slam to Reynolds in the bottom of the seventh and Tellez taking one off Adcock in a three-homer eighth inning.
“The good thing is, it’s only one game,” said shortstop Francisco Lindor.
Rookie phenom Paul Skenes was as advertised for the Pirates (42-45), holding the Mets (42-44) to two earned runs over seven innings.
The two runs didn’t come easy.
The Mets took an aggressive approach against the 21-year-old right-hander, swinging often. They made Skenes work for outs, but he gave them little work with in return.
Skenes put two on in the second inning with no outs before striking out Francisco Alvarez and inducing a double play. Jeff McNeil took him deep to lead off the fourth to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Again, the Mets put two runners on base after McNeil’s home run (his fifth of the year). J.D. Martinez hit one hard, but he hit it right to the first baseman to line into a double play.
“He was really good, but I also thought we had some really good at bats,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “I thought we created traffic, got guys on, and just couldn’t get the big hit.”
Pete Alonso went 2-for-3 with a double against Skenes, leading off the fourth inning with a 10-pitch at-bat. Finally, he drove one of Skenes’ infamous “splinkers” the other way, doubling to the right field wall. He went to third on a fly ball by DJ Stewart and Skenes then hit Francisco Alvarez on the elbow with a pitch to put runners on the corners.
But Skenes is known for combining devastating movement on high-velocity pitches, which makes for a lot of weak contact and ground-ball outs. He induced two of them. Alonso scored on one of them to put the Mets up 2-0.
Then Severino served up the first two homers of the night, with Tellez nearly hitting one into the Allegheny River to lead off the bottom of the fourth. After getting Nick Gonzales to ground out to third base, Jack Suwinski homered to right field, tying the game at 2-2.
Reynolds connected for a two-run shot in the fifth to give Pittsburgh the lead, and Skenes picked up right where he left off in the sixth.
He retired the side in order in the sixth and pitched around a one-out single in the seventh, going three times through the order with precision. Skenes came off to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd of 37,037, keeping his perfect record intact (5-0 in 10 career MLB starts).
The two runs allowed came on four hits. Skenes walked two and struck out eight.
“J.D. smoked a ball right at the first baseman, when we had two guys on. I thought McNeil had really three good at bats against him overall,” Mendoza said. “The at-bats were there, but, you know, to beat guys like that, not only do you have to get guys on, you’ve got to get the big hit.”
With the Mets’ bullpen in need of length, Severino went back out for the bottom of the seventh but loaded the bases and was relieved before getting an out. Diekman, a left-hander, was brought in to face the switch-hitting Reynolds. He got ahead 0-2 before evening the count to 2-2.
He left a fastball up to Reynolds on the fifth pitch of the at-bat. Reynolds took it 413 feet deep.
“He’s going through a very rough stretch right now,” Mendoza said. “He gets ahead and then has a hard time putting haters away, or gets behind with hitters and then ends up walking them. I think the fastball velocity is not there right now and it’s hard.”
Severino (5-3) was charged with seven earned runs on nine hits, walking two and striking out three in the Mets’ third straight loss. The Bucs took away his fastball and while he was able to attack right-handed hitters, he started throwing mostly sinkers to left-handers and struggled to command them.
“I just need to trust my pitches and command my pitches better,” Severino said.
Adcock returned for the eighth and gave up back-to-back homers to Nos. 8-9 hitters Yasmani Grandal and Michael A. Taylor before giving up a bomb to Tellez for a grand slam.
“Not pretty,” Mendoza said. “Just trying to get three outs there. Trying to stay away from a position player. It was tough for Adcock there.”
The right-hander would face two more hitters before the Mets finally replaced him with catcher Luis Torrens, who needed only three pitches to get the third out. He’s given up seven earned runs and walked two in only three games (4 1/3 innings, 14.54 ERA).
