Mets lose to Rockies, but Luis Severino's velocity rebounds

DENVER — By the time the Mets settled in at Coors Field on Tuesday afternoon, they seemed to have a collective pep in their step. They were a smiley bunch who showed no signs of having flown thousands of miles across several time zones on consecutive days for one makeup game — a contest they won, which no doubt helped the mood.

But then the next game started and, well, they played like they didn’t know what city they were in or what time it was. The Mets lost to the Rockies, 6-3, with another underwhelming offensive performance.

They have lost three of their past four games, all to the out-of-contention Rockies and Angels.

“We got in at a decent time last night, I thought the guys were fresh today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We just didn’t get the job done.”

The Mets got shut down by lefthander Kyle Freeland and a series of relievers. The ERAs of the Colorado pitchers: 5.65, 5.82, 5.40, 6.61, 3.64.

Among the primary culprits: J.D. Martinez, who grounded out with the tying run on second base to end the fifth and seventh innings, and Jesse Winker. Appearing in the sixth inning as a pinch hitter against righthanded reliever Justin Lawrence — one of his primary duties — Winker grounded into an inning-ending double play.

“We didn’t make any hard contact today,” Mendoza said.

The Mets had eight batted balls hit harder than Jake Cave’s home run for the Rockies (42-72).

Freeland lasted 4 2⁄3 innings, allowing three runs. He was in good shape to pitch longer but exited because of a blister on his left index finger.

The good news for the Mets (59-54): Luis Severino looked a lot more like himself, even if he didn’t have the line to match.

He wound up allowing five runs (four earned) and eight hits in five innings. But he boasted a season-best average fastball velocity of 97.1 mph and threw his hardest pitch of his year at an even 99.

“We saw it from the first pitch of the game,” Mendoza said. “He came out of the gate 98, 97. That was a good sign. And the velo held the whole outing.”

That represented an important rebound over his previous start, an ugly outing against the Twins at Citi Field, from which manager Carlos Mendoza pulled him after just three innings. Severino’s fastball velocity that day was his lowest of the year: 94.7 mph. It raised questions about his strength and workload down the stretch of his first full season since 2018.

“I got my 7 1/2 hours of sleep, so that helped me a lot,” Severino cracked. “I knew that was not going to be a problem.”

As for the runs Severino allowed against Colorado? All came on borderline plays.

The Rockies (42-72) broke through initially when Mark Vientos fielded an errant throw from the outfield near the Mets’ dugout. But when he bobbled the ball, it fell into the netting, through a rip and into the dugout — meaning Brendan Rodgers (hit by pitch) was allowed to go from third to home.

Tyrone Taylor’s misplay of Elias Diaz’s double in the fourth allowed Rodgers to score on a play at the plate.

The next batter, Cave, sent a routine-looking fly ball to leftfield. But it carried and carried through the thin mountain air for a two-run home run. According to MLB’s movement-tracking technology, balls hit at that speed and that angle carry an expected batting average of .090.

“You can make a case that that’s a ball that probably goes out only in this ballpark,” Mendoza said.

Suffice to say, Severino did not enjoy his first time pitching at Coors Field, a known nightmare for pitchers.

“I have to tip my hat to [Rockies pitchers German] Marquez and Freeland, who had some good years here,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”

By Tim Healey

[email protected]@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.