New York Mets commentator Ron Darling was not pleased with the club’s starting pitcher Luis Severino during Wednesday night’s 6-2 win over the Washington Nationals at Citi Field.
Severino, who earned his sixth win of the season after pitching 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball, made a run-defeating error in the top of the fourth inning.
With two outs in the inning and the Nationals’ Lane Thomas on first base and Keibert Ruiz on second base, Severino allowed a single to Washington first baseman Juan Yepez that sent Ruiz to third to score. Mets right fielder Tyrone Taylor’s throw to the plate sailed over catcher Francisco Alvarez and into the backstop, but Severino wasn’t there to back up his teammate.
Darling let it slide on the SNY broadcast.
“This is inexcusable… 100% of the time, when you give up a hit that could mean a run or a play on third, 100% of the time, you have to back off.”
Ron Darling criticizes Luis Severino for not stepping back to the plate, allowing a run to score.
Part 1. image.twitter.com/xMumIAXfPC
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“This is inexcusable,” Darling said. “All it takes is a little effort on the part of the pitcher. 100 percent of the time, when you give up a hit that can score a run or a play is at third, 100 percent of the time, you have to back off.”
One play later, Severino again did not return to the plate after a single by the Nationals’ Iledmaro Vargas, although this time no run was scored for Washington.
Part 3:
He continued at the bottom of the entrance.
“It’s unconscionable that you’ve done it once. For it to happen twice in a row, I don’t even know what you’d say about that… Tyrone Taylor makes an error in his hurry to get to right field and try to save your ass.” image.twitter.com/vaCfLJGKtG
— Horrible announcement (@awfulannouncing) July 11, 2024
Fortunately for Severino and the Mets, these errors were not costly enough to cause the club to lose the game. But the veteran pitcher still had to answer for them after the game.
“At first I thought the shot was caught and after that I saw everything that happened, but of course, that’s my fault,” Severino said. “I should have done a better job tonight.”
The Mets will play one more game against Washington on Thursday before playing their final series of the first half against the Colorado Rockies.
