Pitching well against Mets doesn't prevent Luis Severino from falling to 0-3 with Athletics

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pitching well against his former team couldn't prevent Luis Severino from falling to 0-3 with the Athletics.

Severino was in a scoreless game until allowing a run-scoring single to Tyrone Taylor on his 103rd and final pitch, and the New York Mets went on to an 8-0 victory over the A's on Sunday.

“It was fun throwing to the guys that I saw hit all last year,” Severino said. “Of course at the end, I knew I was facing a good team. I was just trying to make good pitches.”

Severino gave up four hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. The 31-year-old right-hander has a 4.01 ERA in his first season of a $67 million, three-year contract with the A’s

“I was pleased with the way he went about it,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “It’s never easy to go against your former team with all the emotion.”

Kotsay had visited the mound in the sixth to tell Severino that Torrens would be his last hitter. Though Torrens ended up driving in a run off a 97 mph fastball, Severino appreciated his new manager believing in him with a high pitch count and a tight situation.

“He trusts me that I’m not going to go crazy and do something that is going to hurt me for years,” Severino said.

Severino was 11-7 with a 3.91 ERA in 31 starts for the in his only year with the Mets following eight seasons with the Yankees. He said on Friday he had hoped to stay with the Mets, who had reached the NL Championship Series.

Kotsay said expects Severino to provide a veteran presence. Severino bought a Ping-Pong table for the clubhouse.

“We talked a lot about it: What he was going to do for the staff, how he was going to be the leader of the staff and all those things,” Kotsay said. “He’s met expectations or beat expectations.”

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