PHILADELPHIA — If Luis Severino and his teammates do enough to get the Mets to October, the veteran right-hander, in the midst of an outstanding bounce-back season, won’t rule anything out.
“We have a good team, so if we get to the playoffs, whatever team is the hottest has a chance,” Severino said Friday before the Mets’ 11-3 blowout win over the Phillies.
He only has to go back to Arizona’s run to the World Series a year ago by an 84-win team for inspiration.
“You look at our team, we could be a team like Arizona last year or Washington [in 2019, when the Nationals won the World Series as a wild card]. When they did that, they were teams that no one expected to be in the position they were in and then they shocked everyone.”
The Mets, according to Severino, could do something similar.
“If we get to the playoffs, God knows what could happen,” Severino said.
Given what’s on the line, the prospect of facing the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park with the Mets trying to secure a playoff spot in the final two-plus weeks of the season might seem pressure filled.
Severino, who has been through just about everything in his career, sees it differently.
“It’s all the same for me,” Severino said a day before he was set to make another key start in the Mets’ postseason chase. “From now on, every game is important. I know they have a good lineup and it’s a good team, but I treat it the same as when I pitched against Cincinnati at home. It’s a game we have to win, so I have to give my team a chance.”
Although the Mets enter Saturday just .500 when Severino starts this season (14-14), the right-hander has been especially good lately.
Starting with his complete-game shutout on Aug. 17, Severino has a 1.95 ERA.
In those five outings, the right-hander has allowed one or fewer runs all but once, when he was tagged for four runs in Arizona on Aug. 28.
The late-season excellence is even more impressive considering the 30-year-old’s workload, as he enters Saturday having thrown 166 innings, the most he’s had since 2018, when he threw 191 with the Yankees.
As good as he feels physically, Severino is just as upbeat about his team, who entered Friday with a one-game lead over Atlanta for the final wild-card spot in the NL.
Beginning with the series against the NL East-leading Phillies, though, the Mets have the most difficult remaining schedule in the majors, with series upcoming against the Brewers and Braves, in addition to another matchup at Citi Field versus Philadelphia next week.
“We’re in a good spot,” Severino said. “We have a great chance now against these good teams. It’s a great chance for us to prove ourselves.”
They’ve already come back from being written off more than once this year and Severino believes there is reason to be confident.
“If we get to the playoffs, anything is possible, so our mindset is still just to win series,” Severino said. “At the end, if we get a playoff spot, that’s the only thing that matters. There’s no reason we can’t do it.”
