Mets Luis Severino falters in 6th inning after cruising through NLDS Game 2

PHILADELPHIA — Luis Severino reached back.A bulldog of a starter who remained healthy all season for the first time since 2018 had a little bit more left in the tank in his 33rd turn of the year.In his sixth inning of work, the righty knew the threat Bryce Harper posed and delivered a 99-mph fastball, the hardest pitch of his afternoon and the third-fastest pitch he has thrown all year.Harper’s best, though, was better.Severino was excellent for five innings and hit hard twice in the sixth, once by Harper, as part of a 7-6, Game 2 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday.Severino rolled for five innings until he abruptly halted in the sixth.

Manager Carlos Mendoza trusted his starter the third time through the Phillies lineup partly because he just trusted him, he said, and partly because he had limited options in an overworked bullpen.Follow The Post’s coverage of the Mets in the postseason:In the game-changing inning for Severino, he recorded two quick outs before Trea Turner singled.Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner visited Severino with a message of “being careful” with Harper, Severino said, and not giving him much to hit.

On Sept.14 in Philadelphia, Harper had upturned Severino’s outing by blasting homers in the fourth and sixth.Severino was not careful enough, and it happened again: Harper was ready for an amped-up Severino, turning 99 mph down the middle into a titanic shot that bounced off the bushes in center an estimated 431 feet away.“I was trying to go up and away,” Severino said.

“Trying to throw a purpose pitch away, but it went to the middle.”A sleeping, sellout crowd was jolted awake and still deafening two pitches later, when the volume was cranked up again.Sign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+ Please provide a valid email address.

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