A remarkable season turnaround continued Monday night at Citi Field, where the Mets won their fifth straight game to get within a half game of the idle Braves for the final NL wild-card spot.
And fittingly, it was another strong Luis Severino performance that helped get them there, as the right-hander gave up just one run over seven innings in a 4-1 win over the Red Sox.
It came after Severino said every series had become “a must-win series” for the rest of the year, as the Mets look to go from 11 games under .500 on June 2 to the postseason.
They reached a season-high 10 games over .500 (74-64) with Monday’s win, their sixth in their last seven games.
“What a story,” Carlos Mendoza said. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs, but we never quit. Here we are playing meaningful games in September, but we haven’t done anything. We know where we are.”
It was just what the Mets were looking for to start a critical six-game homestand.
The victory came in front of a home crowd of 35,149, their highest attendance without a fan giveaway since they hosted the Yankees in the Subway Series on June 26.
“This was a fun night, being back here in our house in front of a really good crowd,’’ Mendoza said.
And Severino was a major reason why.
After taking a liner off his right foot in his previous outing in Arizona, where he allowed four runs in 4 ²/₃ innings, Severino was sharp against his old rivals in another big spot.
“I’ve always been in New York,” the former Yankee said. “I don’t know any other way. Every time Boston comes to New York, it’s a big game. … We’re really close to being in a playoff spot, so from now on, every time they give me the ball, it’s a chance for me to get my team closer to the playoffs.”
Francisco Lindor, competing with the Dodgers Shohei Ohtani in the NL MVP race, reached base three times, scored a run and drove in another.
And left-hander Danny Young took over for Severino in the eighth and got Rafael Devers to ground out to end the inning with runners on second and third to avoid some late-inning drama.
With closer Edwin Diaz having pitched four out of the previous five days, Phil Maton closed it in the ninth for his first save of the year.
Severino allowed six hits and a pair of walks in his 100-pitch performance.
He stayed in the game for the seventh after a chat with Mendoza, who said at times down the stretch, he may have to “pull the plug” on some Severino outings, as Severino continues to soar past his workload from recent seasons.
On Monday, Severino convinced Mendoza to leave him in to start the seventh and finished the inning.
The one run he gave up wasn’t entirely Severino’s fault.
In the third, Brandon Nimmo couldn’t come up with a diving catch in center of Ceddanne Rafaela’s liner, which went for a one-out triple.
Jarren Duran then singled through a drawn-in infield to tie the game at 1-1.
Nimmo put the Mets ahead again in the bottom of the third with a double smashed to center that scored Lindor from first, as Duran took a bad route on the ball that landed over his head.
The Mets added a pair of two-out runs in the fourth.
DJ Stewart, on the roster and in the lineup because J.D. Martinez was placed on the paternity list, singled with two outs in the fourth and scored when Luis Torrens doubled to left and Tyler O’Neill fumbled the ball down the line.
The Mets added another run when Lindor singled in Torrens from second to make it 4-1.
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