Luis Severino kept everyone warm on a blustery night by breaking the heat early and maintaining it.
When he wasn’t using his four-seamer, the veteran right-hander frustrated batters with his cutter.
Overall, 72 percent of his 90 pitches were fastballs, making it a challenge for opponents to keep up.
With Severino at the helm, the Mets opened a new homestand with a 6-1 win over the Royals at Citi Field for the fourth time in five games.
The Mets expanded their offensive line, getting big hits from Brandon Nimmo, Brett Batty, and Pete Alonso.
And over the past four games, Jeff McNeil has started to recover from an early slump and has made strides with three hits in four at-bats.
The only downside to Severino’s night was his four walks, which prevented him from scoring more than five walks.
However, as a starter for the second consecutive year, he held the opponent to one earned run in five innings.
The only hit allowed that night was Salvador Perez’s home run in the top of the second inning.
The Mets’ bullpen handled the rest, with Jake Diekman, Reid Garrett, Adam Ottavino and Jorge Lopez pitching four shutout innings.
It was a much better performance for Severino than his City debut in a Mets uniform.
Two weeks ago against the Brewers, he gave up 11 hits in five innings, allowing a home run to Rhys Hoskins, three earned runs, and six overall.
Severino averaged 96 mph on his four-seamer and 93.3 mph on his cutter on the night.
He struck out four batters.
Perez hit a home run on his second run, making it 1-0 for Severino.
Severino gave up back-to-back walks to Nelson Velasquez and Adam Frazier in the second half of the inning, but retired Hunter Renfroe and Kyle Isbell in quick succession to end the inning.
Following Harrison Bader’s double and stolen base against Michael Wacha, Nimmo’s RBI double in the third inning tied the score at 1-1.
In the fourth inning, four consecutive singles from Wacha gave the Mets a 3-1 lead.
After Alonso hit into a double play, Batty, Francisco Alvarez, McNeil, and DJ Stewart each singled and scored twice.
In the fifth inning, Batty hit a two-run double off the glove of center fielder Isbell, extending the Mets’ lead to 5-1.
A walk by Nimmo and a single by the struggling Francisco Lindor set up the inning.
A shaken Lindor received a standing ovation before taking his first at-bat — following team owner Steve Cohen’s advice on X last weekend — but retired.
Lindor also heard cheers before his next at-bat, which produced a walk and a single.
Alonso hit a home run in the seventh inning, catching Will Smith’s 0-2 fastball.
The outburst was Alonso’s fourth of the season.
